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HEROES OF 
AMERICAN HISTORY 



D E SOTO 



I 
I 

5? FERDINAND DE SOTO 

AND THE INVASION OF FLORIDA 



m 
m 



BY 



FREDERICK A. OBER 



HEROES OF AMERICAN HISTORY 



ILLUSTRATED 




HARPER Cr BROTHERS PUBLISHERS 

NEW YORK AND LONDON 

1906 



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rL:3-Ai;VorGOHSf:£3s| 
I Two Copies Received r 
I StP 14 '906 I 

\ Ccpv:.;;n! Cnlry j 

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Copyright, 1906, by Harpkr & Brothers. 

^11 rights resc>~i-ed. 
Published Se]itember, 1906. 



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CONTENTS 



I. The Man on Horseback . 

II. Ferdinand and Isabella . 

III. In the Wilds of Nicaragua 

IV. De Soto, the Avenger . 

V. The Reward of Devotion 

VI. Adelantado and Governor 

VII. The Landing in Florida . 

VIII. In the Floridian Forests 

IX. Battles with the Indians 

X. The Fierce Apalachees . 

XI. The First Winter in Florida 

XII. The Trackless Wilderness . 

XIII. The Princess and her Pearls 

XIV. De Soto's Beautiful Captive 

XV. The Great Chief, Tuscaloosa 

XVI. Desperate Encounter at Mauvila 

XVII. De Soto's Fatal Decision 

XVIII. How THE Mississippi was Crossed 

XIX. A Year of Aimless Wandering 

XX. Last Days of De Soto. 
Index 



13 
30 
46 
60 
76 
89 

lOI 

112 
129 
142 

157 
170 
187 
204 

215 
229 
242 
256 

273 
286 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

FERDINAND DE SOTO Frontispiece 

MAP OF ANCIENT FLORIDA, SHOWING ROUTE 

OF DE SOTO, 1539-1543 Facing p. I 

ATAHUALLPA, INCA OF PERU " 62 

EARLY INDIAN LIFE " 94 

THE MARCH THROUGH THE FOREST ... " I34 y 

BATTLE OF MAUVILA " 226 - 

DE SOTO ON THE SHORE OF THE MISSISSIPPI " 248 

BURIAL OF DE SOTO " 276 



AUTHORITIES 

ON 

Ferdinand De Soto and Florida 

XVIth Century. The "first and best" of three 
contemporary narratives, describing the expedition of 
De Soto, was printed in Portugal, in 1557, as: 

TJie True Relation of the Fidalgos of Elvas. It was 
translated and reprinted by Hakluyt in i6oq, and ap- 
peared again in 1 6 1 1 , as The Worthye and Famous 
Historie of the Travailles, Discovery, and Conquest of 
Terra Florida. The latest edition, in English, was 
published in New York, 1904. 

The Relation of the Conquest of Florida was written 
by Luis de Biedma, the king's factor on the expedition, 
as early as 1544, but did not appear in print until 1841. 

Another personal narrative was that of Rodrigo 
Ranjel, De Soto's secretary, which, though written 
in the form of a journal, when on the march, also re- 
mained in manuscript for more than three hundred 
years, and was first issued in 1855. 

XVIIth and XVIIIth Centuries. La Florida del 
Inca, by Garcilaso (or Garcilasso) de la Vega, was de- 
rived from soldiers who were with De Soto (though more 
than forty years after the return of the expedition), and 
was published first in Lisbon, 1605; in Madrid, 1722. 
Translated and republished, New York, 1904. 

The narratives of the Fidalgo and Ranjel, though 
written and published independently, are generally 
corroborative, and agree in important particulars with 
the "Florida" of the Inca. 

XIXth Century. The Conquest of Florida, by Theo- 
dore Irving, New York, ICS5T, is based mainly upon the 
Inca's history, and is quite complete. 

Buckingham Smith, Spanish scholar and indefatiga- 
ble historian, devoted much time to original research, 
and published The Career of Hernando de Soto, 1864, 
as well as other valuable jjapcrs. 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 



THE MAN ON HORSEBACK 
1532 

IN the doorway of his pavilion on the tented 
hill-slopes of Cassamarca sat the Inca of 
Peru. Around him were his nobles and 
captains of companies, from whom he was 
distinguished, not only by the deference 
they paid him, but by the crimson fringe, or 
borla, badge of royalty, with which his brow 
was banded. That memorable afternoon of 
November 15th was drawing to its close. 
Inca Atahuallpa had watched since morning 
for the coming of the strangers, first of the 
white race to invade the valley of the sierras 
in which he was intrenched. He had seen 
them emerge from the gloomy defiles of the 
mountains, with the sun shining on their 
helmets and reflected from their swords 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

and arquebuses. He had looked in awed 
wonder upon their prancing steeds, their 
glittering weapons, their flaunting banners, 
and had noted with apprehension their solid 
formation — that steel-girdled phalanx which 
was to prove a wedge to split his empire in 
twain. 

The mailed men of Spain marched straight 
across the valley and into the city of Cassa- 
marca, but had hardly reached its central 
square ere their commander, grim and mer- 
ciless Pizarro, detached a small band of 
troopers as an embassy to the Inca, in his 
camp on the hill-side three miles distant. 
Again were the eyes of Atahuallpa greeted 
with a vision of armor-clad horsemen as, 
emerging from behind the city walls, they 
swept across the intervening distance and 
approached his intrenchments. Conspicu- 
ously in advance was the leader of the 
cavalcade, a tall and handsome hidalgo, en- 
cased from head to foot in shining armor. 
He was mounted upon a milk-white charger 
of noble proportions, which, when midway 
the distance between city and camp it en- 
countered a stream twenty feet in width, took 
it at a bound and seemed to fly over the 
ground. Soon the cavaliers were in front of 



THE MAN ON HORSEBACK 

the royal ruler, who, while astonished and 
secretly alarmed, yet preserved an unmoved 
countenance. He directed his gaze to the 
ground at his feet, nor would he look up 
while the leader of the troop delivered the 
message with which he had been charged by 
Pizarro. Out of the corners of his eyes, how- 
ever, he could not refrain from glancing, 
observing which, and probably piqued at the 
Inca's lack of interest, the cavalier resolved 
to arouse it. 

He was, and had been for years, the " best 
lance" in the army, and by far the finest 
horseman of Pizarro 's cavalry, so it was from 
pardonable vanity, perhaps, that he suddenly 
put spurs to his horse and dashed down the 
hill-side to the plain out-stretched beneath. 
There, in the waning light of the departing 
day, he put the fiery war-horse through a 
variety of evolutions, circling round and 
round, impetuously charging an imaginary 
foe, and finally advancing at full speed upon 
the Inca and his nobles. The latter fled in 
wild dismay, but Atahuallpa sat immovable, 
even when the snorting, panting charger, 
thrown suddenly upon his haunches, launch- 
ed out with iron-shod hoofs close to his head. 

This was the manner in which Ferdinand 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

de Soto introduced himself to the Inca of 
Peru. For it was he (though by some ac- 
counts it was Hernando Pizarro) who, as the 
leader of that little band of troopers, was the 
first of white men to hold converse with the 
renowned "Child of the Sun." It is said 
that the Inca ordered such of his nobles as 
had fled at the approach of the war-horse to 
be executed ; but whatever his feelings tow- 
ards them may have been, for the gallant cav- 
alier he ever after entertained the greatest 
respect, and this strange meeting was but 
the beginning of a friendship which lasted 
until severed by his untimely death. 

The conquest of Peru was achieved, some 
historians have asserted, not so much by 
Francisco Pizarro, the reputed commander 
of the invading army, as by Ferdinand de 
Soto, captain of cavalry, and the adored 
leader of an invincible band of dragoons. 
Certain it is that he always led the advance, 
whether in reconnoitring the enemies' out- 
posts on the skirmish line, scouting the un- 
known country, or in hand-to-hand encoun- 
ters. He had joined Pizarro at the island 
of Puna, before he had really landed on the 
main, and when in sore need of reinforce- 
ments. From the very first he had asserted 
4 



THE MAN ON HORSEBACK 

his independence of command, had refused 
to obey any orders that his judgment did not 
approve, and especially those which related 
to the plundering and massacring of the 
natives. 

At the time he joined Pizarro, bringing 
two ships well laden, and one hundred com- 
panions armed to the teeth, the ferocious 
Francisco had so exasperated the Peruvians 
by his massacres and murders, that he and 
his band were about to be exterminated. 
They would doubtless have paid the extreme 
penalty of their evil deeds had it not been 
for the opportune arrival of De Soto, who not 
only supplied the men and munitions neces- 
sary for an invasion of the mainland, but 
also dictated the course to be pursued. 

While it may not be claimed with truth 
that he was more humane than the majority 
of those cruel Spaniards who accomplished 
the conquest of Mexico, Central and South 
America, yet it may be confidently asserted 
that he had within him the elements of a 
manhood to which most of them were utter 
strangers. He was bold, dashing, and, above 
all, high-spirited and honorable. Though he 
had come to America with only a sword 
and a shield as his fortune, he was a gentle- 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

man born, and no one could rob him of his 
birthright. With that sword he had fought 
his way to honorable distinction; with that 
shield he had turned aside the arrows of 
calumny, by which his enemies had assailed 
him often in the past. 

We will not, at this moment, inquire into 
the circumstances which induced, or rather 
compelled, his going to the assistance of 
Pizarro ; but let it suffice to state that he had 
been promised by the commander-in-chief 
the rank of lieutenant-general, or second in 
command. When he arrived at the seat of 
war, however, he found that post occupied 
by Francisco Pizarro 's brother, Hernando, 
who, moreover, very plainly intimated that 
he intended to hold it against all comers. 

It was not De Soto's desire to foment a 
disturbance, and demand a nominal authority 
of which he was the actual possessor; so, 
after roundly berating Pizarro for his bad 
faith, he accepted things as they were and 
took his place in the army of invasion. From 
that time forward, however, he treated the 
Pizarros with contempt, and though they 
were four in number (Francisco, Hernando, 
Juan, and Gonzalo, besides a half-brother, 
Martin Alcantara), he was always ready to 
6 



THE MAN ON HORSEBACK 

fight them, one and all, at the winking of an 
eyelid or the dropping of a glove. This they 
well knew, and took good care never to offend 
him, so that they all departed their different 
ways eventually (most of them through meet- 
ing their death by violence) without coming 
into personal combat. 

Holding, then, the position of a commander 
of dragoons, every one devoted to him and 
ready to fight for him to the death, yet 
nominally at the orders of the commander- 
in-chief, Ferdinand de Soto made common 
cause with the invaders, and was foremost 
of them all in the conquest of the Inca's 
kingdom. Hernando Pizarro commanded 
another body of dragoons, similar in size and 
equipment to De Soto's, and the wonder is 
that their followers did not clash in conflict. 
That they did not was probably owing to the 
fact that both bands of marauders were en- 
gaged against the poor natives, whom they 
despoiled without mercy, and sometimes mur- 
dered. 

When we speak of Ferdinand de Soto as a 
chivalrous and merciful conqueror, we must 
bear in mind that he was in contrast with one 
of the most brutal and merciless of those 
Spaniards who trailed the flag of their coun- 
7 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

try through blood and dishonor, during the 
many years they were permitted by Provi- 
dence to scourge the southern portions of our 
hemisphere. While in Peru, indeed, he was 
not only comparatively humane, but actually 
so ; though when he had an absolutely inde- 
pendent command in Florida (as we shall see 
later) he hung and burned Indian caciques, 
cut off their hands, and cast them to the 
dogs, with that disregard for the sacredness 
of human life displayed by Pizarro himself. 

Now, Francisco Pizarro was an astute 
commander who, though he had many and 
grievous faults, could appreciate a good man 
at his full worth. He saw that De Soto was 
immeasurably superior to his brothers, and 
governed himself accordingly, wisely ignor- 
ing his contempt and insubordination, and 
at all times treating him with respect. When, 
therefore, after the mainland invasion had 
commenced, De Soto, sent off to scout the 
country, remained many days over the time 
allowed him, and returned without any ex- 
planation, Pizarro said nothing. He sent 
him off again, and this time he was gone so 
long, it became common talk in the army 
that he had at last thrown off the command- 
er's yoke and revolted, A spy returned, in 
8 



THE MAN ON HORSEBACK 

fact, with information to that effect; but 
Pizarro knew his man, and gave no credence 
to the report. Meanwhile, De Soto and his 
men were ranging the country at will. They 
were the first, it is said, to discover that 
magnificent highway of the Incas, which 
connected the two great capitals, Quito and 
Cuzco ; the first to penetrate the sierras and 
explore the wonderful valleys abounding in 
natural wealth and teeming with inhabitants. 

Hernando Pizarro was jealous of the free- 
dom and personal initiative allowed his rival, 
and one day tauntingly asked him if he in- 
tended to penetrate the kingdom as far as 
Cassamarca, where the Inca was said to 
dwell, and perchance form an alliance with 
him. Ferdinand flashed back at him the 
reply that he intended to do as he pleased, 
and he certainly was going to visit the Inca, 
whether the rest would keep him company 
or not. 

"As for you, Senor Hernando — the only 
one of your family who can boast a father ! — 
presume not upon your connections to insult 
me with impunity. Neither you nor your 
brother can control my movements!" 

Hernando turned livid with rage, but he 
dared not reply. He reported the remark 
9 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

to Francisco, who merely shrugged his shoul- 
ders, though the allusion to his illegitimacy 
cut him to the quick. 

" It is well," he finally said. " Let him go 
to see the Inca Atahuallpa, for there may 
be no better way of getting rid of him ! For 
it is said that the Inca is all-powerful, that he 
has warriors as the sands of the sea; and if 
this be so, who, my dear brother, can be 
better spared than Don Fernando?" 

"Who, indeed?" answered Hernando, with 
a malignant smile. " But suppose he returns 
— that he escapes the Inca's warriors — then 
he gathers all the laurels!" 

"Well, he may, so we get all the gold! 
Laurel leaves fade quickly, do they not? 
While gold, bright gold, can never tarnish." 

Pizarro said no more, for he was a man of 
few words ; but he lost no time in despatching 
De Soto on his dangerous errand. With only 
twenty-four men, though the pick of his com- 
pany, he set out. Knowing no fear, craving 
adventure, always anxious to be first in a 
fight and the last to draw out, Ferdinand 
de Soto gayly pranced away, as to a tourney. 
He and his men sought again the great high- 
way, along which they swept, resplendent in 
their armor, like blazing meteors, bursting 

lO 



THE MAN ON HORSEBACK 

upon the astonished gaze of the terrified 
natives, only to disappear again, with clash 
of weapons and metallic rattle of accoutre- 
ments. 

Such forays as this were the delight of De 
Soto, for he had made many in the wilds 
of Nicaragua previous to his adventure in 
Peru. He had gained there a rich experi- 
ence, which stood him in good stead now in 
his dealings with the natives. Indian nature 
is much the same the wide world over; and 
though the natives of Nicaragua were far 
beneath those of Peru in culture, at heart 
they did not differ. Thus it was that De 
Soto was successful, everywhere he went, in 
gaining the confidence of the aborigines ; thus 
it was that, though he met an army ready to 
fight him, gathered in a valley of the moun- 
tains, he and his men were finally summoned 
to a banquet, rather than to battle. After it 
was over, he was about to ride on again, when 
he was met by an envoy from the Inca him- 
self, bearing presents for Pizarro, and in all 
honor could not refuse his request to return 
and escort him to the camp of the com- 
mander-in-chief. 

It was not in accord with De Soto's desires 
to return, for he had set himself the task of 
1 1 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

being the first of his race to meet and hold 
an interview with the then unknown Inca. 
So he went back reluctantly, and, if this were 
a narrative of Pizarro's doings, instead of 
De Soto's, we might tell how the envoy was 
received, how the commander was filled, 
first, with a great desire to see the owner of 
the golden treasure, of which he had sent 
specimens to Pizarro, and again with appre- 
hension at the difficulties in the way. In 
the end, the whole army set out for Cassa- 
marca, with De Soto's company in the lead, 
and Hernando Pizarro bringing up the rear. 



II 

FERDINAND AND ISABELLA 
1501-152I 

IT may be presumed that before proceeding 
further with the career of Ferdinand de 
Soto in Peru, the reader may wish to learn 
something of his previous Hfe, and how he 
came to the New World in search of advent- 
ure. Acting upon this assumption, we will 
turn back a few leaves in his biography, and 
investigate the scant records of his early life 
as they exist in Spain. Like his great coun- 
trymen, Pizarro and Cortes, he was a native 
of Estremadura, which seems to have been 
prolific in sturdy sons and daughters. Un- 
like them, he was born a gentleman, "by all 
four descents" — which means that not only 
his father and mother were of " gentle " birth, 
but also their parents as well. Then again, 
he was born in the noble town of Jeres de los 
Caballeros, anciently a seat of the Templars, 
the ruins of whose castle may still be traced. 
13 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

Some have given his birthplace as Bar- 
carota, in the same province of Estrema- 
dura; but the majority of his biographers 
agree on Jeres, or Xeres (pronounced Hay- 
r^s), which Hes about forty miles south of 
Badajoz, where resided a family, that of 
Don Pedro Arias de Avila, with which he 
became intimately connected. It was in 
one of the ruinous castles of Jeres that Fer- 
dinand de Soto was born ; but so obscure was 
his family at that time, that no exact record 
was kept of the occurrence. The year, how- 
ever, was probably 1500, or 1501, and it is 
generally agreed that he made his advent 
with the sixteenth century. 

Though his family belonged to the hidal- 
giiia, or nobility, it must have been quite 
poor, for on the death of his parents, which 
occurred when he was a youth, Ferdinand 
was thrown upon the world. Fortunately 
for him, he had won the regard of Don Pedro 
de Avila, the Count of Punorostro, who oc- 
cupied one of the several castles for which 
ancient Badajoz is famous. This nobleman 
invited him to make his home at Badajoz, and 
is said to have supported him at the uni- 
versity of Salamanca for a number of years, 
where he acquired some knowledge of books, 
14 



FERDINAND AND ISABELLA 

but not enough to make him ehgible for a 
profession. As a member of the Spanish no- 
bility, indeed, it was not necessary that he 
should be proficient in much besides horse- 
manship, sword-play, fencing, and the like, 
and in these he led all his young companions. 
Possessing a handsome face, muscular limbs, 
and a shapely body, combined with a happy 
disposition and gallant demeanor, he became 
a great favorite at the tourney, where he won 
the admiration of the fair sex, and took 
prizes in every competitive encounter with 
the caballeros. There was no other horseman 
like him in all Estremadura, neither a gallant 
who was so reckless and jovial with the 
cavaliers, but at the same time held in such 
high repute by the ladies. 

Now, Don Pedro had a family, comprising 
several sons and daughters, as well as a wife 
who was so nearly related to royalty that she 
entertained the highest hopes of great alli- 
ances for her children. She was, in fact, a 
niece of the Marchioness of Moya, that be- 
loved friend and constant companion of 
Queen Isabella of Spain, who was with her 
when she died, and who nearly lost her life 
by an assassin's dagger intended for her 
royal mistress. The Marchioness of Moya, 
IS 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

it may be recalled, has the credit of inclining 
Queen Isabella's ear to the story told by 
Columbus when he went begging for some 
one to send him out to find a world. Her 
niece, the Dona Isabel, was also a favorite 
at court, at which, as soon as they became 
old enough, she presented her daughters, two 
of whom were noted for their beauty. The 
most promising of them all was the second 
daughter, named after her mother, Isabel de 
Bobadilla, and whom her parents had de- 
cided should marry no less than a prince of 
the royal blood. They had, in truth, picked 
out the very prince she should espouse ; but, 
alas for their plans! Isabel fell in love with 
Ferdinand de Soto. 

Ferdinand, of course, had fallen in love 
with her ; but being only a poor cavalier, and 
regarded in the light of a dependant of the 
family, with no fortune but his sword, and 
that, perhaps, a borrowed one, he was a long 
time in declaring his affection. This should 
be said to his honor ; but such a condition of 
things could not exist forever, it must be 
admitted, and the day came when each be- 
came acquainted with the affection of the 
other. And, what was very bad for them, 
Don Pedro became acquainted with it also! 
i6 



FERDINAND AND ISABELLA 

He was away when the affair first developed 
so far that Ferdinand first spoke of his love, 
having sought and obtained the position of 
governor of Darien. It was a position which 
the king had no right to give him, as it be- 
longed really to Vasco Nunez de Balboa, who 
had fought the natives of Darien, subdued 
the province, and also discovered the Pacific 
Ocean, before Don Pedro received his ap- 
pointment. 

But "might was right" with the king 
and Don Pedro, and the latter sailed from 
Spain in the year 15 14 to take possession 
of his province. What he did there has 
a bearing on the fortunes of De Soto, else it 
would not be detailed in this connection ; but 
it was of vastly greater consequence to poor 
Balboa, who lost, not only all his hard- 
earned possessions, but his head as well, 
which Don Pedro caused to be cut off in 
1 517. From this it will be seen that Fer- 
dinand de Soto's prospective father-in-law 
was not the sort of man to be trifled with. 
In very truth, he was one of the most cruel 
and tyrannical of all those Spaniards who 
went out to conquer the natives of the New 
World. Not alone that, but he was peculiar- 
ly ferocious in his cruelty, taking delight in 
17 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

the infliction of pain and even torture upon 
the innocent natives of his territory. 

Imagine, then, the reception he gave poor 
Ferdinand when, the old tyrant having re- 
turned to Spain, the young man threw him- 
self at his feet and announced his love for 
Isabel. At first he was speechless from 
indignation, then, in a voice trembling with 
passion, he bellowed: "What? You — pov- 
erty-stricken wretch that you are, one who 
has sat at my table and lived in my castle 
for years! You, dastard, venture to aspire 
to the hand of the daughter of Don Pedro 
Arias de Avila, Count of Punorostro, an hi- 
dalgo of ancient lineage, friend of the king 
and the queen? You must be mad! Mad, 
I say! Do you hear? Begone, ingrate, and 
never let me see thy face again!" 

The young man thought it prudent to 
retire, not only from the immediate presence 
of Don Pedro, but from the castle ; but be- 
fore he departed from Badajoz he somehow 
secured a final interview with his beloved. 
She appeared at the grated window of her 
room, which overlooked a garden, and he, 
standing beneath, amid the myrtles and the 
rose-trees, poured forth his woes. She lis- 
tened in silence, then said, in sorrowful ac- 



FERDINAND AND ISABELLA 

cents: "Ferdinand, it is true, you cannot re- 
main here longer. My father is a cruel man, 
and he never forgives ! He thinks you have 
betrayed a trust, that you have committed a 
crime, in loving me." 

" But I do love you, Isabel. I will go 
away, but I shall return ; and you — you will 
be true to me?" 

"Always, Ferdinand. Always. But do 
not allow my father to get you in his power. 
Remember what he did to Vasco Nunez 
[Balboa]. Did he not behead him? And 
for what ? Merely because he aspired too 
greatly. And — and he was betrothed to my 
sister, too! Ah me, that I should be com- 
pelled to say it — but my father is a vengeful 
man!" 

It was true, as Isabel had said, that in 
order to get the gallant Balboa completely 
in his power, Don Pedro had pledged him his 
eldest daughter in marriage, then had turned 
and slain him. Ferdinand pressed her to 
elope with him, as soon as her father should 
return to Darien; but she had too high a 
sense of honor and of her obligations to her 
family to consent. 

"No," she mournfully replied, "it cannot 
be. He will return; but he will not leave 
19 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

you here to plot in his absence. He is too 
wise for that. And, being himself deceitful, 
he will not trust me, either. Ferdinand, he 
will compel you to go with him, and — and I 
see no way other than that you must go." 

"Compel!" replied De Soto, scornfully. 
" Isabel, no man hath ever compelled me 
yet. And again, he has driven me from 
him." 

"Yes, but that was when in a rage. He 
will recall you, Ferdinand, and (though I 
warn you to beware of his friendship) , it may 
be, that way your fortune lies, beloved." 

"Ah, that would impel me," declared De 
Soto, warmly. " If he does invite me, surely 
I will go to that land of gold, where quickly 
I may win a fortune, perchance fame. Then 
I will return, Isabel." 

"And I shall await you, Ferdinand, even 
through long years!" 

This was the purport of their conversation, 
in the last meeting between Ferdinand and 
Isabel, and it fell out as she had predicted. 
Informed by her governess that Isabel's 
heart was in the keeping of the young cava- 
lier, Don Pedro at first stormed and raged, 
declaring that she should die rather than 
become the bride of an impecunious noble- 
20 



FERDINAND AND ISABELLA 

man like De Soto. Then, as he grew calmer, 
he took counsel with himself and dissembled. 
He sent for Ferdinand and asked him if he 
would accept a captain's commission in the 
expedition he was then preparing for Darien. 
He pictured the land of promise, rich in vast 
possibilities for the young and ardent ad- 
venturer; he assured him that wealth and 
distinction awaited him in that land, where, 
as the favorite of the governor, he would be 
rapidly promoted. 

" Enough, Don Pedro," exclaimed De Soto. 
" I will serve you faithfully ; but I ask no fa- 
vors, only an opportunity for winning my 
way with my sword." 

"That you shall have," replied Don Pedro. 
" Darien is the land of opportunities, and you 
may carve out an empire. Sooth, there will 
be blood enough to spill, and gold enough 
for all!" 

Don Pedro was as good as his word. Over- 
joyed to have De Soto in his power, and 
relieved at being able to part him so easily 
from his daughter, he advanced the money 
for a splendid outfit, and gave him a com- 
mission as captain of a troop. They sailed 
for Darien in the year 15 19, with a gallant 
company of fortune-seekers, most of whom 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

"found their graves in the land whither 
they had gone to dig for gold." 

As Ferdinand was about embarking, he 
was handed a note from Isabel, containing 
two lines, merely: "Dearest, remember my 
promise, and remember my warning!'' Her 
promise — to remain faithful always; her 
warning — against the treachery of her own 
father. 

Ferdinand de Soto pondered her words, 
and took heed. That he escaped the snares 
set for him by Don Pedro, was owing to 
the watchfulness of Isabel; that he held to 
higher aims and loftier purposes than his 
companion conquistador es, was because of his 
love for her and the consciousness that in 
the end she was to be his reward. 

He was noble by nature ; but many noble 
natures became perverted in that prolonged 
hunt for gold; many a man of honorable 
instincts became a monster of cruelty when 
pitted against the savages of Darien and 
Panama. It was, however, the universal 
testimony of De Soto's companions that he 
was constantly humane to the unfortunate 
Indians whom he was ordered by Don Pedro 
to torture or destroy. To women and chil- 
dren, especially, he was tender and consid- 

22 



FERDINAND AND ISABELLA 

erate; thus many a poor wretch was saved 
from suffering through the love that existed 
between Isabel de Bobadilla and Ferdinand 
de Soto! 

Old Don Pedro, or "Pedrarias," as he was 
sometimes called, dissembled well; but his 
settled purpose, which was to destroy his 
daughter's suitor at the earliest opportunity, 
was perfectly apparent to De Soto. It was 
no secret, even, among the men of his com- 
mand, who, seeing the unequal fight that 
was being carried on, were the closer drawn 
to him, through sympathy. They soon be- 
came his pronounced partisans, and would 
follow him through fire, if need be, when he 
ordered them. Though never a word was 
spoken as to this between the captain and 
his men, the latter frequently foiled Pedrarias 
in his efforts to find a joint in De Soto's 
armor, through which he might thrust a poi- 
soned weapon. 

Ferdinand himself, while ever alert, al- 
ways treated Don Pedro with the deference 
due to a benefactor, and the father of one 
whom he loved better than his life. As 
time went by, and Pedrarias found himself 
continually foiled in his evil purpose, he 
became nearly insane with rage. Indeed, it 
23 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

is doubtful if he were not insane during his 
entire term as governor of Darien and Nica- 
ragua. For what man in his right mind 
would order, as he did often and again, 
the extermination of people who had never 
offended, save by withholding from him the 
gold they found in the forest, and which was 
theirs by right? And it was almost in- 
variably Captain de Soto's troop of horse- 
men that was ordered on this disgusting 
service. Thus a twofold object was attained 
by crafty Pedrarias: the extermination of 
the natives, and the decimation of the de- 
tested troop. 

As he did not accompany the troops on 
their forays, he was not aware, at first, that 
his orders were disobeyed, and that the poor 
natives were oftener warned of an attack 
than sufferers from it. At last, the suspicious 
old governor sent out a creature of his com- 
pany to spy upon the doings of De Soto in the 
field, and this man reported the true con- 
dition of affairs. When he heard it, Don 
Pedro nearly choked with rage. "Ho!" he 
exclaimed. "That is it! Instead of putting 
those red scoundrels to the sword, and tear- 
ing them to pieces with the dogs, he merely 
sacks their dwellings and then allows them 
24 



FERDINAND AND ISABELLA 

to return. Little wonder that I have not 
received gold enough, in the months just 
past, to pay the expenses of my household ! 

"Now, go you, Captain Perez, and tell 
that squeamish son of a nobody, Fernan 
Soto, that my orders are for all villages to be 
razed, or burned to the ground, and for all 
Indians to be killed. He is not to spare a 
single one, remember, and you are to see that 
he does as I command." 

This Captain Perez was scarcely less fe- 
rocious than Pedrarias himself — he could not 
be more so — and, moreover, he hated De 
Soto for his popularity. So he gladly under- 
took the errand that was to result in his 
htmiiliation ; but when he delivered the orders 
he met with such a reception that he returned 
like a whipped cur to his master. He found 
De Soto sitting easily on his horse, superin- 
tending the collecting of tribute from some 
Indians of a forest hamlet, who were only too 
glad to escape with their lives, and were 
bringing him all their portable possessions. 

He heard Perez through, disdainfully and 
in silence, then replied: "My life and my 
services are, of course, always at my superi- 
or's commands, and I shall do his bidding — so 
long as I can do so without besmirching my 
25 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

character as a Spanish cavaUer. But in this 
instance, Captain Perez, it would seem that 
the service to be performed could more 
fittingly be done by yourself! I am sur- 
prised at Don Pedro's lack of discrimination, 
and this, if you like, you may tell him from 
me." 

This was the reply, in substance, which 
Perez carried back to Pedrarias, and, as the 
ferocious captain had the reputation of being 
in his element while massacring unarmed 
Indians and burning their dwellings, he took 
it as an insult. In this view he was sup- 
ported by Pedrarias, who told him, in ef- 
fect, that were he a younger man, this in- 
solence should not go unpunished. " But, 
alas!" he exclaimed, smiling significantly, "I 
am no longer able to hold my own on the 
field of honor. Old age has palsied my arm, 
and perhaps, also, it has enfeebled my con- 
stitution, for I seem to lack courage to meet 
this insolent young man and chastise him as 
he deserves!" 

This hint was not lost upon Perez, who, 
as Pedrarias knew, of course, was a noted 
duellist. He had already killed several men 
and had never, himself, been harmed. A 
challenge was promptly sent to De Soto and 
26 



FERDINAND AND ISABELLA 

as promptly accepted. Feeling assured that 
the young man's doom was surely sealed, 
Pedrarias was in high glee, and issued invi- 
tations to all the officials and dignitaries of 
his capital, which was then at Panama, the 
city he had founded. 

A noted and numerous assemblage wit- 
nessed the combat, which took place on the 
plain outside the city. Though each man 
had his partisans, and it was with difficulty 
that Ferdinand restrained his troopers from 
assaulting his opponents, fair play was given, 
and the fight proceeded according to the 
"code of honor." It was to be a sword- 
fight, and to the death. As the combatants 
stepped into the arena, a murmur of admira- 
tion went around the throng, chiefly on ac- 
count of De Soto's gallant appearance and 
his youth, as contrasted with the savage as- 
pect of his grizzled opponent. 

Ferdinand was the embodiment of Spanish 
chivalry, in the eyes of the dames and gentle- 
men who loved Spain for her glorious tradi- 
tions. He seemed a typical knight - errant, 
clad as he was in shining armor, tall, erect, 
confident of bearing, and sweeping the as- 
semblage with his flashing glances. He re- 
minded the veterans of the Moorish war 
27 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

(who, under King Ferdinand, had driven the 
Moslems from Andalusia) of their knightly 
defender, Garcilaso, when he went forth to 
meet the Moor in mortal combat on the 
vega of Granada. 

Many a prayer was muttered for his suc- 
cess, and many a scowling glance was cast 
at old Pedrarias, who, crafty dissembler 
that he was, could not conceal his satisfac- 
tion. The combat lasted two long hours, 
and its various stages might have been 
followed by scanning the features of Don 
Pedro, who cried out in delight when Ferdi- 
nand received a scratch, and growled like a 
lion when his champion seemed in danger. 

As Ferdinand received several slight 
wounds during the protracted conflict, while 
his opponent remained untouched, Pedrarias 
seemed to have no doubt as to the issue. The 
old soldier forced the fighting from the first, 
Ferdinand remaining mostly on the defensive, 
having all he could do to parry the lightning- 
like blows and thrusts that were rained upon 
him. But, through it all, he kept himself 
cool and collected, never once losing temper 
nor allowing himself to be taken off his guard. 

From the very fact that the fierce Perez had 
forced the fighting, he had, naturally, ex- 
28 



FERDINAND AND ISABELLA 

pended his strength in doing so, while Ferdi- 
nand had held his in reserve. As the old 
duellist's thrusts became feebler, those of his 
adversary became more forceful, until at last 
the veteran was compelled to act wholly on 
the defensive. He was finally forced upon 
his knees, while, with a rapid upward cut, 
Ferdinand gashed his sword - hand at the 
wrist. His weapon fell to the ground, 
whither, in attempting to recover it, Perez 
swiftly followed. He was then completely 
at the mercy of Ferdinand, who, planting a 
foot upon his breast, and holding the point 
of his sword at his throat, demanded sub- 
mission. A single word would have saved 
the surly veteran's life, but, game to the last, 
he refused to utter it. 

"Very well," exclaimed the magnanimous 
victor. "Then I give back to you a life 
not worth the taking, since it is not worth the 
asking." He removed his foot, and, care- 
fully wiping his sword, returned it to its 
scabbard. 



Ill 

IN THE WILDS OF NICARAGUA 
1521-1524 

IMAGINE the rage and confusion of Pedra- 
rias at beholding the man whom he per- 
sisted in regarding as his enemy the cen- 
tre of a tumultuous and admiring throng. 
But he fumed and threatened to no purpose, 
for Ferdinand de Soto was the hero of the 
hour, and thenceforth the darling of the 
army. His delighted troopers lifted him 
upon their shoulders, all clad in weighty 
armor as he was, and carried him around the 
field, with shouts of triumph. 

Don Pedro was compelled to overlook 
these proceedings, and, like the fabled Giant 
Despair at the cave's mouth, gnawed his 
nails with impotent vexation. As for the 
crestfallen duellist, he slipped out of sight as 
soon as possible, and took the first ship for 
Spain. Thus the Isthmus was well rid of one 
villain; and if old Pedrarias had gone with 
30 



IN THE WILDS OF NICARAGUA 

him, there would have been few, if any, 
mourners over his absence in Panama. Still, 
the latter continued his depredations as 
before, and he by no means gave up the idea 
of making way with Ferdinand, though he 
had not the temerity to send him to the 
scaffold nor the courage to assassinate him 
openly. He could provoke nobody to chal- 
lenge him a second time, for, aside from the 
fact that nearly everybody was his friend, 
he had proved himself the most accomplished 
swordsman in the army. 

Not very far from Panama lay the rich 
region of Veragua, populous with Indians and 
abounding in gold. This region was invaded, 
by the orders of Don Pedro, and swept with 
fire and sword. Troops of blood-hounds ac- 
companied the Spaniards, and the terrible 
outrages committed by man and beast com- 
bined at last aroused the resentment of a 
powerful chief named Uracca, who soon 
showed the ruthless invaders of what he was 
capable. He assembled a vast army of 
savages, who, though half-clothed in skins, 
or entirely naked, were skilled in the use 
of the poisoned arrow, and were otherwise 
armed with war - clubs, javelins, and spears 
made of hardened wood tipped with copper. 
31 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

Pedrarias sent out his army in two divisions 
one in ships along the coast, and commanded 
by a lawyer named Espinosa ; the other by 
land, under Francisco Pizarro, with orders to 
form a junction with the first division when 
it should reach and land in the enemies' 
country. As there were no roads, or even 
open trails, in that wild land, Pizarro 's divis- 
ion was far behind Espinosa 's in reaching 
the appointed place of rendezvous. With- 
out awaiting the arrival of Pizarro, Espinosa 
disembarked his soldiers in a sheltered harbor 
and established a camp in a valley surround- 
ed by forest. 

Unknown to Espinosa, Chief Uracca him- 
self was guiding the movements of the 
Indians. His scouts and spies had brought 
him exact information of the Spaniards' 
forces, and his most expert warriors had en- 
ticed them into the forest, where thousands 
of savages lay in ambush. Then, when he 
had drawn his foes into a deep and gloomy 
gorge, whence it was impossible for them to 
escape without great loss, Uracca shouted 
the piercing war-whoop. Suddenly, as if 
descended from the tops of the giant trees 
that towered above them, hundreds of 
Indians appeared, and from their powerful 
32 



IN THE WILDS OF NICARAGUA 

bows launched a shower of poisoned arrows. 
Few of these arrows pierced the armor in 
which most of the Spaniards were encased, 
but such as were not thus protected were 
doomed to an agonizing death. They fell 
by scores, and many who escaped the arrows 
were trampled upon by their companions 
in the tumult of retreat. Too late, then, 
Espinosa saw that he had been entrapped, 
and wished he had waited for Pizarro, whose 
greater experience might have prevented this 
disaster. 

The Spaniards were routed, and, in a panic, 
attempted to withdraw from their perilous 
position ; but the wary Uracca had closed in 
behind them with a thousand warriors, and 
all hope of escape seemed to be vain. Mass- 
ing in phalanx, so far as the broken nature 
of the ground would permit, the Spaniards 
forced a passage to the verge of the valley in 
which they had encamped; but here they 
were halted by the horde of savages re- 
solved upon their extermination. 

Their destruction seemed assured, when, 
just as the sun was sinking behind the hills, 
they observed a great commotion in the 
ranks of their opponents. It appeared as if 
they were being attacked in the rear, and 
23 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

such, indeed, was the case, for soon the 
despairing Spaniards heard the well-known 
war-cry, "Santiago! Santiago!" and upon 
their vision burst a band of horsemen, led by 
Ferdinand de Soto. He and his dragoons 
had formed a part of Pizarro's company, and, 
being in the van, were the first to hear the 
sound of conflict and the first to hurry to the 
rescue. They arrived, as we have seen, just 
in time to save their comrades from total 
destruction, for at sight of their horses, and 
on receiving their impetuous charge, the 
Indians fled in wild terror. They had felt 
sure of Espinosa's soldiers; but the horses 
and their riders, impervious in their armor of 
steel, were too powerful for them to resist. 
Uracca tried to rally them again to the attack, 
and they returned, like a wave rolling upon 
the strand; but De Soto quickly formed his 
battalion as a protection to the rear-guard, 
charging upon the Indians when they ap- 
proached too closely, and a safe retreat was 
thus effected. 

Pizarro arrived in time to establish a camp 
that night, but, famished and exhausted as 
they were, the Spaniards resolved upon a 
retreat to the ships, which was finally effect- 
ed after midnight, De Soto and his troop- 
34 



IN THE WILDS OF NICARAGUA 

ers holding the desperate savages at bay. 
They safely embarked, and, sailing down the 
coast, at quite a distance from the scene of 
their disgraceful defeat came upon an Ind- 
ian village. Nearly all the men were with 
Uracca in the mountains, but the town was 
filled with defenceless women and children, 
whom Espinosa surrounded with his sol- 
diers, intending to carry them away as 
slaves. 

This proceeding was resented by De Soto, 
who denounced the lawyer-commander as a 
coward, and threatened to ride away with 
his entire troop if he still persisted in his in- 
tention. Espinosa, on his part, called De 
Soto a mutineer, and a traitor to the gov- 
ernor, to whom he would promptly report his 
conduct. The answer the young captain 
made to this threat was to assemble his men, 
and then, riding to Espinosa 's tent, repeat 
his demand for the unconditional release of 
the prisoners. 

"You may do as you please respecting 
making a report to Don Pedro," he said to 
Espinosa; "but I am not under your orders, 
neither am I disposed to assist you in the 
event that you are attacked by the warriors 
of Uracca. In a word, release these women 
35 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

and children or I and my men will ride 
away. Now, choose you, and at once!" 

It was evident to Espinosa that the Indian 
chief was sending out runners to assemble 
his warriors for another attack, and as his 
force was already weakened by the great 
losses sustained, he was compelled to comply 
with De Soto's demand. As further retreat 
was impracticable, it was resolved to send 
to Panama for supplies and reinforcements, 
which were absolutely necessary to save the 
little army and hold what small portion of 
territory had been conquered. De Soto 
volunteered to go to Panama, and rode the 
entire distance through the forests, then 
swarming with hostile Indians, accompanied 
only by a single trooper, like himself a superb 
horseman and intrepid spirit. During his 
absence. Chief Uracca entirely surrounded 
Espinosa's encampment, effectually cutting 
off all supplies, and reducing the beleaguered 
Spaniards to a diet of roots and herbs. 

Returning as rapidly as possible, De Soto 
broke through the line of investment, and 
threw a small reinforcement into the camp; 
then, taking command of his dragoons, he 
foraged the surrounding country with such 
success that the army was enabled to subsist 
36 



IN THE WILDS OF NICARAGUA 

until assistance arrived from Panama, in the 
shape of more than four hundred men com- 
manded by Don Pedro himself. Altogether, 
when he arrived, the army amounted to more 
than five hundred, counting new adventurers 
and volunteers. High hopes were entertain- 
ed that with this force Veragua could be over- 
run and subdued; but they still had Chief 
Uracca to reckon with, and he had collected 
a larger army of warriors than ever before. 

The two forces came into collision on the 
banks of a deep and rapid river, in attempt- 
ing to cross which the Spaniards were assailed 
by such a storm of javelins and poisoned 
arrows that they wavered, then fell back, 
then broke into headlong flight. Not even 
the impassioned pleadings of Don Pedro could 
stop them; and, in fact, he himself was com- 
pelled to ride from the field in a hurry to 
avoid being made a prisoner. Owing to the 
efforts of De Soto and Pizarro, the men were 
rallied on open ground and made a stand, 
committing great havoc in the savage ranks 
with their ordnance; but they could not be 
induced to pursue the Indians into the for- 
ests again. 

Don Pedro now saw what warfare against 
Uracca was like, and could understand how 
4 37 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

his captains had been, one after the other, 
driven with slaughter from the country. But 
he was obstinate — as we know — and hesitated 
to abandon the field and order a retreat. He 
needed but another lesson in Indian cun- 
ning, however, to induce him to change his 
mind. This was given him by Uracca in the 
following manner. Learning that the Span- 
iards were desperately enraged because of 
their lack of success in finding gold, he allow- 
ed several of his men to be captured, who, 
when threatened with torture unless they 
divulged the hiding-place of the chief's treas- 
ure, promised to conduct their captors to the 
place where it was concealed. 

Pedrarias was in high glee, and taunted De 
Soto and his veteran officers with their lack 
of skill in matters of the sort. They were too 
chicken-hearted, he said, to apply the tort- 
ure, by which alone information could be 
obtained as to the deposits of precious metal, 
and he would show them what they ought to 
do. De Soto retorted that a man would say 
anything expected of him when put to tort- 
ure ; and, moreover, he did not have faith in 
the pretended revelation, but, on the con- 
trary, suspected treachery. 

"You will give your opinion when asked 
38 



IN THE WILDS OF NICARAGUA 

for it," snapped Don Pedro. "I was fight- 
ing Indians, remember, when you were eating 
the crumbs that fell from my table, while I 
was absent from my castle — yea, while you 
were prowling around that castle seeking to 
purloin my most precious jewel!" 

Ferdinand laid his hand quickly on his 
sword-hilt, and his eyes flashed angrily; but 
he turned away without a word. His opin- 
ion, however, though unasked, was speedily 
confirmed, for when the forty men, whom 
the governor despatched to the spot indi- 
cated by the captives, arrived at the supposed 
treasure-vault, they were set upon by Ind- 
ians in ambush and murdered. One mangled 
survivor finally reached camp with the dis- 
mal tidings, on receipt of which Pedrarias 
ordered every captive in his possession thrown 
at once to the dogs. As the ravening brutes 
tore the wretched Indians limb from limb, he 
looked on calmly, gloating over the gory 
spectacle, which was by no means an uncom- 
mon one for him to witness. 

" Sorry am I we have so few to feed the 
hounds," he was heard to mutter. "The 
poor creatures are famished! Sooth, there is 
one Christian I would like them to try teeth 
upon!" 

39 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

He meant De Soto, of course ; and it is said 
that Ferdinand overheard the remark, and, 
striding up to him, shook a mailed fist in his 
face, exclaiming: "One hound has tried his 
teeth on me, and perchance they are broken, 
Sefior Governor!" 

Pedrarias glared at him, but ventured no 
reply, for he too obviously merited the vile 
epithet De Soto had applied to him, and 
feared to provoke an encounter. Another 
hero of this war, who shone in contrast with 
Pedrarias, was the Indian chief, Uracca. 
Notwithstanding that his opponent had de- 
livered to the blood-hounds, not only warriors 
taken in battle, but infants torn from their 
mothers' breasts (children whose innocence 
should have appealed to his heart), the chief 
did not retaliate. Indeed, it is said that once 
having made captive a Spanish lady of 
Panama, he treated her with great considera- 
tion, and when opportunity offered returned 
her safe and sound to her friends. When, at 
last, despairing of conquering this brave and 
gallant savage, Pedrarias ordered a retreat 
from Veragua, Uracca refrained from pursuit, 
satisfied at having driven the ferocious in- 
vaders from his coimtry. 

In such inglorious labors as we have nar- 
40 



IN THE WILDS OF NICARAGUA 

rated, Ferdinand de Soto passed his first five 
years in America, and when they were gone 
he found himself no better off, as to fame or 
fortune, than when he landed at Darien. 
He had expected to gather gold-veined peb- 
bles from every stream and precious pearls 
on every strand, but, in common with others, 
had been disappointed. If he ever reflected 
seriously, he must have seen that he was no 
better than a bandit — that he was one, in fact 
— for, instead of devoting himself to some 
honorable occupation, like mining, or the 
tilling of the soil, he had spent all his time in 
ravaging Indian villages, contributing tow- 
ards, if not actively engaged in, the massacre 
of innocent natives, and destroying the fruits 
of their toil. 

It is strange that he should have so 
persistently attached himself to Pedrarias; 
though the truth is that he might have gone 
east or west, north or south, and he could not 
have removed himself beyond his sphere of 
influence. He had an opportunity, in 1524, 
to sail southward with Francisco Pizarro, 
when he made his first voyage in search of 
Peru ; but, though urged by that adventurer 
to accompany him, he positively refused, 
having no liking for the man. 
41 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

Soon after the return of Pizarro from this 
voyage, Pedrarias was superseded by Don 
Pedro de los Rios, a new governor appointed 
by the king, with full authority to bring his 
immediate predecessor to trial for his nu- 
merous crimes. Having little to hope from 
the king's clemency, Pedrarias resolved to 
retire into the almost unknown territory of 
Nicaragua, and there, with his bandit band, 
follow to its final ending the lawless career he 
had pursued at Darien. He sent two of his 
generals, Fernando de Cordova and De Soto, 
to prepare the country for his arrival by 
suppressing the people and putting down any 
usurper who might dispute his authority. 
There was one unique individual, known as 
Gil Gonzales the fanatic, who had prac- 
tically taken possession of Nicaragua, and 
went about "converting" its native inhabi- 
tants to the religion he and his fellow-bandits 
professed, at the head of a hundred followers. 
They were all well mounted and armed. 
Their alternative of " receive our religion or 
fight " was taken to mean that they desired 
gold in exchange for a promise of salvation, 
so the natives flocked to Gonzales and were 
baptized at the rate of thirty thousand a year. 
For baptismal fees alone he is said to have 
42 



IN THE WILDS OF NICARAGUA 

received four hundred thousand dollars, and 
he was rapidly accumulating a fortune, when 
the arrival of De Cordova and De Soto inter- 
fered with his plans. Encountering the lat- 
ter one night, he engaged him in battle, with 
the result that he lost fifty of his best men, 
though his force outnumbered De Soto's more 
than five to one. Ferdinand fought with his 
accustomed valor and energy, never counting 
the cost of a conflict, and so impressed the 
fanatic that he fled from the province and in- 
trenched himself in the mountains. 

There was no other foe to molest them, so 
De Cordova and De Soto carried out the in- 
structions of old Pedrarias to the letter, and 
founded two towns, Granada and Leon, which, 
favored with a fertile vSoil and charming cli- 
mate, soon became quite flourishing. Hav- 
ing done as he was directed by Pedrarias, De 
Soto returned to Panama to report. The dis- 
tance was more than four hundred miles, and 
there were no roads or beaten paths for the 
guidance of the traveller; but the Spaniards 
of those days thought nothing of obstacles 
which to-day might be deemed insuperable. 

Finding his irascible patron about to de- 
part from Panama, and the new governor 
perilously near, the loyal Ferdinand attached 
43 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

himself to Pedrarias again and returned with 
him to Nicaragua. He was shocked, how- 
ever, to discover that the old tyrant had 
conceived the idea that his friend, De Cor- 
dova, intended to cast ofl his allegiance and 
set up a government of his own. Captain 
Bernal Diaz, that veracious historian of the 
conquest of Mexico, states it was really De 
Cordova's intention to disavow Pedrarias, 
who was, to all intents, a fugitive, and ally 
with Hernando Cortes, then recently arrived 
in Honduras, on the northern border of 
Nicaragua. 

However, the mere supposition was enough 
to excite the frantic Pedrarias to action. All 
the long way to Nicaragua, he was breath- 
ing vengeance against De Cordova, and as 
soon as he arrived at Leon he summoned 
him to appear before him in the public 
square. Now, De Cordova had been warned, 
not only by letters from De Soto, but by Gil 
Gonzales, that unless he successfully resisted 
Pedrarias he would do to him as he had done 
to Balboa — that is, cut ofif his head. And 
this is what he did, when, relying upon the 
justice of his cause, poor De Cordova ap- 
peared before him as ordered, unarmed and 
without soldiers, in a twinkling the stalwart 
44 



IN THE WILDS OF NICARAGUA 

executioner, who had been concealed behind 
Don Pedro's chair, stepped forward and sev- 
ered his head from his shoulders. 

It was done so quickly that De Soto him- 
self, who had charge of the soldiers on guard 
about the square, was taken by surprise. 
When he realized the appalling nature of the 
crime Pedrarias had committed before his 
very eyes, he drew sword and was about to 
dash forward and cut down the old man on 
the spot; but something within restrained 
him. This old man was the father of Isa- 
bel, whose memory he sacredly cherished in 
his heart, whom he still intended to claim as 
his bride. How, then, could he do so if he 
should be guilty of her father's death ? 



IV 

DE SOTO, THE AVENGER 
1524-1527 

THE sword was reluctantly restored to 
its scabbard ; but it was soon to have a 
victim, nevertheless. Hardly had the ex- 
ecutioner held the bleeding head aloft and 
shouted : " This is the doom of a traitor," than 
Pedrarias issued an order to a file of soldiers, 
who marched across the square and closed 
about De Soto. They were the most reliable 
of the old tyrant's mercenaries, and led by an 
officer who had committed many a crime at 
his behest. 

"Seize and drag him hither," cried Pedra- 
rias, pointing at Ferdinand an accusing finger. 
" He, too, is a traitor, false to me and to his 
king. He shall share the penalty we have 
meted to his comrade." For a single instant 
Ferdinand sat as if petrified. He had long ex- 
pected death at the hands of Pedrarias, but did 
not believe he would dare inflict it so openly. 
46 



DE SOTO, THE AVENGER 

As the officer reached out to seize his bridle- 
rein, De Soto recovered himself. His good 
sword leaped from the scabbard, and like a 
flash descended upon the officer's helmet, 
cleaving it and the head within in twain. 
Wrenching it free with a violent effort, De 
Soto held the dripping blade aloft, and, put- 
ting spurs to his powerful charger, dashed 
through the ring of soldiers straight upon 
Pedrarias. 

"Murderer! Usurper!" he shouted, plac- 
ing the sword-point at the trembling tyrant's 
breast. " That I do not kill you is because I 
hold sacred the memory of one who is not 
here. Your death has long been overdue, 
but — " He made as if to sheath his sword, 
when there arose cries on every side: " Down 
with the tyrant! Kill him! Kill him!" 

"You hear them? Those are the cries of 
your soldiers. They know, and I know, that 
the blood of our dead comrade cries aloud 
for vengeance — that justice demands your 
death. You killed Balboa — a most dastard- 
ly crime — Balboa, who was betrothed to your 
daughter; and now you would kill me! I 
have served you most faithfully many years, 
but henceforth my sword shall never be drawn 
in your service, not even to defend your life," 
47 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

With these words De Soto turned from 
the despicable wretch and joined his troop. 
The citizens of Leon and the soldiery gathered 
around him and urged that he seize upon 
the government of Nicaragua, in the name of 
the king, promising him their loyal and un- 
wavering support. Nicaragua lay as a mid- 
dle ground between Mexico -Guatemala and 
the Isthmus. With such an energetic ruler 
as De Soto would have made, it might have 
become great and powerful ; but he put aside 
this opportunity and contented himself with 
exploration merely. 

It must be remembered that at the time 
these occurrences took place the three 
Americas, North, Central, and South, were 
but little known. Mexico had only just been 
conquered ; Guatemala was being invaded ; 
the West Indies, alone, had been to any 
extent explored. The great problem that 
confronted the discoverers was what was 
termed the "secret of the strait" — of a pas- 
sage supposed to exist between the Carib- 
bean Sea and the Pacific. Columbus had 
searched for it vainly; so had Cort6s and 
others. 

We know that it was never discovered, 
and that the waters of the sea and the ocean 
48 



DE SOTO, THE AVENGER 

will be blended only after an artificial water- 
way shall have been opened through the 
mountains that separate them at the narrow- 
est part of the Isthmus. But De Soto did not 
know this, and, believing the solution of the 
secret to be vastly more important than the 
foimding or government of a colony, he set 
himself to the task. Choosing a few con- 
genial spirits from his troop, he departed on 
an exploring expedition, which resulted in 
making known more than seven hundred miles 
of coast -line. He solved the secret by as- 
certaining that there was no strait; and in 
exploring it is quite as important to nail a 
fallacy as to make a new discovery. He re- 
turned greatly enriched, from traffic with the 
natives ; and though this was, so far as can be 
ascertained, his first accumulation of gold, 
he generously shared it with his comrades, 
not only with those who went with him, but 
those of his troop who remained behind. 

Pedrarias was still living, and, unfortunate- 
ly for Nicaragua, still wielding a semblance 
of power; so Ferdinand remained in the 
country only long enough to set his affairs 
in order, and started south again. His 
loyal troopers accompanied him, but for 
what purpose they returned towards the 
49 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

Isthmus is not exactly known, though it is 
conjectured that they were drawn thither by 
the reports of Pizarro's great successes in 
Peru. They all set out for Panama, taking 
no account of the difficulties in the journey; 
but when some distance on the way, while 
marching along the coast, they discovered 
a vessel, which De Soto promptly chartered. 
Had the master of this vessel known the 
character of De Soto and the relation in 
which he stood to Pedrarias, he would have 
refused him passage, to a certainty; but he 
paid the penalty of his ignorance with his 
life. Hereby hangs a short story of crime, 
for the proper development of which we 
must turn back a few years in the life of our 
hero. 

It chanced that, in one of his forays, 
Ferdinand had found captive among the 
Indians, and rescued, an Italian astronomer 
named Micer Codro. He was a man of 
science, unacquainted with war, and went 
about looking for and delving into the secrets 
of nature. His head was always "in the 
stars " ; but he valued it highly, just the same, 
and was very grateful to De Soto for having 
rescued him from the savages. Being some- 
thing of an astrologer, he cast his horoscope, 
SO 



DE SOTO, THE AVENGER 

as, some years previously, he had foretold the 
fate of Balboa. He informed him that he was 
ever in peril while with Pedrarias, who would 
seek to take his life, as he had taken that of 
Vasco Nunez de Balboa ; but he would escape 
his wiles and live to accomplish the great 
aim of his life, which was a tmion with the 
one he loved. 

"You will be more fortunate than Vasco 
Nunez," said the astrologer, and will live 
to the age he attained, which was forty-two, 
before death, in a strange manner and in a 
new land, shall claim you." 

"We are all in the keeping of God," re- 
plied De Soto, humbly. " I rely upon Him 
to protect me." 

Shortly after this conversation took place 
the artless philosopher, Micer Codro, was se- 
lected by Pedrarias to represent him at the 
court of Spain. He could not trust a man 
less simple and unworldly than the astrologer, 
for fear his crimes might be made known; 
but, as it turned out, he was the last person 
he should have employed, owing to his 
friendship for Ferdinand. When he learned 
that he was to be sent to Spain, Codro was 
overjoyed at the opportunity it gave him to 
serve the man who had saved his life. He 
SI 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

hastened to Ferdinand and said: "I am go- 
ing to Spain. I shall see the family of Don 
Pedro, to whom I am to be intrusted with 
letters. Is there no member of that family 
you would like me to carry a message to? 
Five years is a long time, without news of 
one's beloved, is it not?" 

Ferdinand started in astonishment. " How 
did you know?" he asked. "Oh, I forgot — 
perhaps you learned it of the stars. Yes, it 
is five years since I came here, and during 
that time not one word. Sometimes I ques- 
tion whether she has written." 

" Nay, do not doubt her, friend. She has 
written, but her letters have been inter- 
cepted by her father. This chance I offer 
you is the only one you will have, for I not 
only go, but I return, and everything will be 
wrapped in secrecy." 

"But," answered De Soto, doubtfully, 
" should Don Pedro discover it he would not 
hesitate to kill you." 

" I fear him not. If he is to kill me, then 
it is so written in the stars. Prepare your 
letter, friend, and I will carry it." 

Ferdinand raised no more objections, but 
wrote a letter to Isabel de Bobadilla, in 
which he poured forth the pent-up feelings of 
52 



DE SOTO, THE AVENGER 

those five long years. It was taken by 
Micer Codro to Spain, and delivered in per- 
son to the delighted maiden, who respond- 
ed with an epistle filled with fervent love 
and protestations of undying affection.' She 
assured her lover that, though she had 
written him previously, and received no 
answer, she knew and appreciated the cause 
of that long silence. She had not for a 
moment distrusted him, nor would she ever 
do so. She impatiently awaited his return; 
but whatever time might elapse before that 
happy event, she would be faithful to the 
end. 

Eight years more were to pass before the 
return of De Soto to Spain, or fifteen in all, 
ere he found the fortune which enabled him 
to go and claim his bride; but during this 
long period both were faithful to each other. 
Simple Micer Codro, though he could predict 
future events, did not possess the craft to 
conceal his intentions. There were spies 
about the castle, and spies in Panama, who 
reported to Don Pedro everything that had 
happened, and he knew that Isabel had 
sent a letter to her lover almost as soon as 
Ferdinand had received it. 

He said nothing, and kept a smiling face 
s 53 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

for poor Codro, whom he rewarded for his 
services by sending him on an exploring trip 
down the coast. Such an expedition was 
what the man of science dcHghted in, and he 
embarked most joyfully ; but he had not been 
long aboard the vessel before he discovered 
the real nature of the fiendish governor's in- 
tentions. The craft was a slaver, command- 
ed by a brutal wretch named Geronimo de 
Valenzuela, who, carrying out the instruc- 
tions he had received from Pedrarias, chain- 
ed poor Codro to the main-mast. There he 
was kept until he finally died from exhaus- 
tion, exposed to the fierce rays of a tropical 
sun by day and the drenching dews of night. 
Ten days he was kept thus, all the time with- 
out food or water, and suffering abuse from 
the heartless crew. As his end approach- 
ed he called Valenzuela to him and, with 
his last accents, said: "Captain, you have 
caused my death by your cruelty. I now 
summon you to appear with me, within a 
year, before the judgment-seat of God." 

The vessel in which De Soto had taken 

passage worked its way along the southern 

coast of Veragua, and late one afternoon 

arrived off a group of islands about one hun- 

54 



DE SOTO, THE AVENGER 

dred miles southwest of Panama, known as 
the Zebacos. They were green and beautiful 
isles. Something in their appearance seem- 
ed to excite in the captain of the vessel a 
spirit of reminiscence. 

"Oh ho!" he exclaimed to his mate; "do 
you remember the last time we passed Ze- 
bacos, and the old wizard we buried there?" 

"Sooth, I do," replied the mate; "and, 
moreover, the year is nearly up, my captain, 
so prepare yourself, perchance." 

"What is it?" asked one of the soldiers. 

A group of De Soto's men had gathered 
about, and among them was their commander, 
who listened carelessly as the master of the 
vessel gave the details of a fiendish story. 
He was a man of brutal appearance, whose 
whole career had been one of wickedness. 
His name was Geronimo de Valenzuela, and 
he was the same who had tortured poor 
Codro to death, though De Soto was not 
aware of that. Indeed, he had never learned 
what had become of his friend, who had 
mysteriously disappeared and left no trace 
by which his fate could be known. He was 
soon to learn, however, and in a startling 
manner was to avenge his death. 

"Ye see that island standing up high 
55 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

above the sea, with a cocoa - palm on its 
highest part? Well, there we buried him, 
the old wizard who, somehow, had offended 
Pedrarias. He had proved treacherous, I 
believe, bringing back letters from Spain 
which Don Pedro would rather had not been 
sent. Whatever it was, he was to suffer for 
it, and I had orders to chain him to the mast 
and keep him there till he died. It was not 
so easy a task, for the old man was all of ten 
days in dying, though we helped him along 
somewhat. Eh, mate?" 

The captain burst into a roar of brutal 
laughter, in which he was joined by such of 
his crew as were with him when poor Codro 
was tortured. Had they looked up, they 
would have seen that De Soto was standing 
near, with flashing eyes and paling cheek, one 
hand convulsively gripping his sword. But 
he kept silence, and the fiend continued : 

"Well, towards the last the old man lost 
his speech ; but some time before he died he 
recovered and called to me, 'Captain,' he 
said, ' I die ; you have killed me ; but know 
this : within one year you will appear with me 
before the judgment-seat of Almighty God.' 

"Oh ho, he spoke like a prophet; but the 
year is within a week of its ending, and here 
56 



DE SOTO, THE AVENGER 

am I. And there is the island where we 
buried him. Now, who can say Don Codro 
was no liar?" 

"I say it," thundered a voice in his ear. 
" He was my friend and a good man, and 
with this blade I will prove he was no liar." 

With one swift and powerful blow De Soto 
severed the man's head from his body, and 
it rolled upon the deck. 

" Now come at me, varlets, one or all. 
Here stand I, Ferdinand de Soto, to defend 
the good name of my friend, to avenge an 
atrocious deed, for that friend doubtless died 
for doing me an inestimable service." 

But not one of those cringing villains 
made a move towards the valiant swords- 
man. Instead, they slunk away, one by 
one, overpowered by the suddenness of the 
onslaught. The skill displayed by De Soto, 
as well as his courage, elicited their admi- 
ration; and though they murmured among 
themselves as they cast the captain's remains 
to the sharks, they attempted no reprisal. 

The date of this incident and the length of 
De Soto's stay in Nicaragua are not known. 
It is probable that, after his return to 
Panama, he lingered so long, in a country 
already impoverished by the raids of in- 
57 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

satiate Spaniards, who repeatedly ravaged 
it with fire, sword, and packs of blood- 
hounds, that he expended all the gold he had 
obtained in Nicaragua. We know this: that 
when, after having reached the frontiers of 
Peru, and finding himself unable to advance 
because of the few men he had with him, 
Francisco Pizarro sent urgent calls to Panama 
for reinforcements, De Soto consented to go 
to the rescue. 

He had long known Pizarro, from having 
come in contact with him during the fre- 
quent raids they had made together when 
in Panama and Darien, but by no means 
admired him. In fact, he heartily despised 
him, although he could not but have rec- 
ognized his soldierly qualities. But Pizarro 
had now obtained the consent of the Span- 
ish sovereign to the conquest of Peru; he 
had persisted in his attempt to reach that 
country during many years, and was at last 
on the verge of success. He offered great in- 
ducements to any cavaliers who would come 
to his assistance, and sent a special request 
to De Soto. 

For several years previous to the departure 
of De Soto for Peru he and Pedrarias had held 
no communication. Don Pedro was consistent 
58 



DE SOTO, THE AVENGER 

in his cruelties, it is believed, up to the time 
of his death, which occurred while De Soto 
was absent in Peru. He pursued the Indians 
vindictively, using blood-hounds unsparingly 
and committing atrocities which called down 
upon his head the curses of all who spoke his 
name. The natives of Nicaragua were en- 
slaved, and the survivors of his massacres de- 
prived of their harvests, so that famine resulted 
and many thousands perished of a pestilence. 
De Soto would not lend himself to the en- 
slavement of the Indians, nor is his name 
notably connected with any act of atrocity 
in Nicaragua or Panama. But, in transfer 
ring his allegiance from Pedrarias to Pizarro, 
he merely passed from the service of one 
unscrupulous villain to that of another. In 
the interim, however, he had become a free- 
lance, and owned no man as his master. His 
strength and prestige enabled him to dictate 
terms to the Conqueror of Peru, and, "ac- 
cording to the report of many persons who 
were there, he distinguished himself over all 
the captains and principal personages present, 
not only at the seizure of Atabalipa, lord of 
Peru, and in carrying the city of Cuzco, but 
at all other places wheresoever he went and 
found resistance." 

59 



V 

THE REWARD OF DEVOTION 
1532-1538 

HAVING informed ourselves as to the in- 
fluences which shaped the character of 
Ferdinand de Soto, we will now return to the 
Inca's court, at which we found our hero in 
the first chapter of this biography. Suc- 
ceeding to the arrival of Pizarro's army at 
Cassamarca and the visit paid the Spaniards 
by the Inca, Atahuallpa, came the horrible 
massacre by which Peruvian affairs were 
thrown into chaos and the "Child of the 
Sun" made a prisoner. 

While this atrocious deed was planned by 
Pizarro, it evidently received the sanction of 
his captains, and there is nothing to show 
that De Soto disapproved it or did not lend 
his active assistance. As commander of the 
most active troop of cavalry, he probably 
took a leading part in the fiendish slaugh- 
ter of unarmed Peruvians ; but, as he is not 
60 



THE REWARD OF DEVOTION 

mentioned particularly, we may give him the 
"benefit of the doubt," and hope, at least, 
that he did not. He was assuredly absent 
when the massacre was planned, but present 
when it was carried into execution. 

It does not accord with our conception of 
him, as obtained through scanning his deeds 
in Darien and Nicaragua ; but inasmuch as 
he shared in the spoils — which he did to a 
notable extent — he must have participated 
in the slaughter. However this may have 
been, it is known that he was the only man 
in Pizarro's army who was admitted to the 
confidence of the captive monarch, and per- 
haps the only one who could have saved 
him from an inglorious death. It is said 
that it was through him that Atahuallpa 
offered to ransom himself by filling an im- 
mense room with gold and another with 
silver. 

An ardent friendship existed between him 
and Atahuallpa, who now regarded the hand- 
some cavalier as his sole reliance. Pizarro 
did not dare attempt the Inca's life while De 
Soto was by, so he invented the report that 
a conspiracy had been formed by the Peru- 
vians to release their ruler, and sent him 
off with his troopers to investigate. The un- 
6i 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

suspicious Ferdinand set out on this toil- 
some journey as a mission of love — for it 
was said that the Inca had incited this 
conspiracy, and he was anxious to disprove 
it. He was gone several days, and when 
he returned the dreadful deed had been 
committed. 

Atahuallpa was dead. He had been sen- 
tenced to be burned at the stake, on the 
evening of the very day he went through the 
semblance of a trial, in order that he should 
be put out of the way before De Soto re- 
turned. Though the sentence of burning 
had been commuted to death by strangling, 
that "he might die a Christian," he had 
suffered the extreme penalty. When led to 
the stake, and while the fagots were being 
piled about him, the hapless Inca looked 
around for De Soto. 

"Oh, where is he, my friend?" he asked. 
"It is not like him to consent to this foul 
murder. He can save me, I know. Why 
does he not compel my release?" 

When told that De Soto had gone to sup- 
press a conspiracy instigated by the Inca 
himself, he groaned, and said no more. The 
full extent of Pizarro's treachery was then 
apparent to him. His only friend with in- 
62 




ATAHUALLPA, IXCA OF PERU 



THE REWARD OF DEVOTION 

fluence had been sent away, in order that he 
might be murdered without a protest. 

When De Soto arrived at the place at 
which it was declared by Pizarro the Inca's 
followers were assembling, he found every- 
thing quiet and no signs of a disturbance. 
A terrible suspicion then took possession of 
him, and he hastened back to the city with 
all speed. On the way he learned the truth, 
and on his arrival at headquarters strode 
into the room where Pizarro was sitting, 
with a slouched hat drawn over his eyes, in 
sign of mourning, and fiercely upbraided him 
for his perfidy. 

" Look up, miserable coward and assassin !" 
he shouted, drawing his sword and with its 
point lifting the hat from Pizarro 's head. 
"There was no conspiracy — as you knew. 
There was no treachery, except in your own 
black heart — which I have a mind to thrust 
through with this sword, Francisco Pizarro!" 

In this tenor he raved, his indignation 
blazing forth like a flame; but to no avail. 
The deed was done, and he could not restore 
the dead. It is said that he ended by chal- 
lenging all the Pizarros to single combat, 
and that not one of them dared accept it; 
but it is certain that he threatened to re- 
63 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

sign his commission and leave Peru at once. 
Thinking it over, however, after his wrath 
had somewhat cooled, he concluded to re- 
main, at least until Cuzco was taken. 

The entire force of invaders amounted to 
less than five hundred men, while the Inca's 
standing army was ten times that number, 
and the people were everywhere rising to 
avenge the death of their ruler. To resign, 
in those circumstances, would appear the 
act of a coward, and De Soto resolved to re- 
main until victory perched upon the Spanish 
standards. Nearly another year, in truth, he 
remained in Peru, and when he left it was 
with the satisfaction of having done his duty, 
in the light in which he saw it then. 

But it was a sullen and fractious De Soto 
that went along with the army when, on a 
day in September, 1533, it set out for Cuz- 
co, the former capital of the incas. He had 
accomplished the object of his ambition, and 
was now wealthy, even beyond the antici- 
pations in which he had indulged when, as 
a young adventurer, he first set foot on 
American soil. He was at liberty to return 
to Spain and claim his bride, but his keen 
sense of honor restrained him. 

Sullenly, then, he led his troopers over the 
64 



THE REWARD OF DEVOTION 

mountains, taking as usual the post of danger, 
and obeying with alacrity the command of 
Pizarro to force a perilous pass held and 
fortified by the Indians. It was a gloomy 
defile between precipitous cliffs, and the only 
passage was over a narrow stairway cut in 
solid rock. Setting the example to his men, 
De Soto dismounted and, with his bridle- 
rein over one arm, began the perilous ascent. 
He had scarcely done so when a great 
boulder came rolling down, sent by a troop 
of howling savages above. It bounded over 
him, as he was sheltered by an intervening 
ledge, and cut a ghastly swath through his 
men, who were toiling behind. Several were 
crushed to death, as well as their horses; but, 
though the approaching contest promised 
to be one with cyclopean forces, Ferdinand 
hesitated only long enough to give directions 
to clear the pathway of the mangled remains, 
and hastened on. The air was filled with 
arrows, javelins, lances, hurled by sinewy 
arms, and now and again great rocks came 
thundering down; but still on he pressed, 
bowing his head to the storm, the missile- 
weapons glancing like hail from his armor. 
Gallantly supported by his brave troopers, 
he gained at last a plateau on the mountain- 
65 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

top, where, forming his men in battle array, 
he charged the Indians and drove them to a 
distance. He did this repeatedly, but, just 
as often as he returned to the spot he had 
fixed upon for a camp, just so often came 
rolling back the tide of yelling savages, evi- 
dently intent upon forcing him and his men 
over the precipices. The coming of night 
alone saved the Spaniards from complete 
destruction ; but they dared not sleep, for 
ominous noises in the surrounding forest told 
them that the desperate Peruvians were as- 
sembling by thousands, determined to make 
one last effort to save their capital from in- 
vasion. 

They had chosen their stand with consum- 
mate strategy, and here they concentrated 
their warriors, with the intention of destroy- 
ing the Spaniards at the coming of the dawn. 
They were only prevented from doing so by 
the opportune arrival of reinforcements un- 
der Almagro, the partner of Pizarro in this 
enterprise. He was in command of a strong 
detachment of infantry, which had camped 
at the foot of the mountain, unaware of the 
desperate situation of De Soto. A courier, 
sent by the latter, managed to break through 
the investing lines and take to Almagro ti- 
66 



THE REWARD OF DEVOTION 

dings of the disaster. Without a moment's 
hesitation, the command was set in motion. 
It scaled the dizzy heights in midnight dark- 
ness, and gained the plateau, the first inti- 
mation of succor coming to De Soto from Al- 
magro's bugle-blasts, which echoed through 
the forest. 

Both commanders held a similar detesta- 
tion of Pizarro, for both had been wronged 
by him ; yet both were engaged in a common 
cause against the foe. Back to back, with 
the infantry in the centre and the mailed 
chargers presenting a front of steel, they re- 
pulsed the advancing Indians, then in loosen- 
ed formation opened fire with cross-bows and 
arquebuses, while the cavalry charged madly 
across the plain. The slaughter was terrible, 
and the ground was soon covered with the 
slain; but victory was won at great cost to 
the Spaniards, many of whom were crushed 
beneath the blows from ponderous battle- 
axes or transfixed with arrows and javelins. 

The Peruvians retreated in confusion, and, 
save for a slight skirmish a few days later, 
the Spaniards encountered no further op- 
position to their entry into Cuzco, which was 
accomplished on November 15, 1533. The 
battle of the plateau was the first of any im- 
67 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

portance fought between Peruvians and the 
invaders of their country, and it was also the 
last in which De Soto was engaged. 

In Cuzco the Spaniards found a large 
amount of treasure, though not so much as 
if they had pushed on rapidly, as De Soto 
had desired to do after the battle of the pass. 
It may have been because Pizarro was feeling 
the effects of advancing years, or from an 
inclination to allow De Soto to bear the brunt 
of the attacks, that he lingered by the way, 
when the City of the Sun w^as almost within 
his grasp. But he did so, first in this seduc- 
tive valley, then in another, until at last his 
fiery captain, provoked beyond measure at 
the delay, which was unpardonable from a 
military point of view, burst the slight bands 
of restraint which held him, and dashed for- 
ward with his devoted dragoons. 

He and they led the advance, from be- 
ginning to end of that long march, as well as 
fought all the battles. When the setting sun 
of that November day in which the valley 
of Cuzco was entered glanced athwart the 
helms and banners of Pizarro 's army descend- 
ing the sierras, Ferdinand de Soto might have 
been seen well in the van. He was also the 
first in Cuzco, and not the last to engage in 
68 



THE REWARD OF DEVOTION 

the sacking of the city, where the spoils were 
vast, notwithstanding much treasure had 
been taken away and secreted. Plunder, 
chiefly gold and silver, was divided among 
the common soldiers alone to the amount of 
half a million dollars, or above a thousand 
dollars to each one, while the officers, all, 
were made affluent for life, if they could but 
keep the treasure they had gained. 

There was but one way to do this, and that 
was to retire at once from the country where 
the wealth had been acquired and return to 
Spain. To this sensible conclusion came Fer- 
dinand de Soto, and, as his services were no 
longer urgently required — as, in fact, Pizar- 
ro would rather be rid of him than have 
him remain — he resolved to return. Some- 
time in the summer of 1534 he bade farewell 
to his comrades in arms and, after making 
the long journey from Cuzco to the coast, 
embarked for Spain. We have no particu- 
lars of the final scenes when De Soto and 
his faithful troopers parted company. They 
had been together during years of hard ser- 
vice, had encountered dangers, and run the 
gantlet of death many times in company, 
so it came hard, at the end, to say farewell. 
Some of his comrades, in truth, followed his 

6 69 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

example and returned in the same ship with 
him to Spain, afterwards going with him 
through Florida. All were enriched by the 
spoils of Peru, and Ferdinand himself took 
back, according to the old historian, one hun- 
dred and eighty thousand cruzados in gold, 
or more than half a million dollars. 

Next we see this hero of many battles and 
numberless skirmishes with the Indians of 
America at the court of his sovereign, where 
he was received with great distinction, as the 
most heroic figure, on the Spanish side, in 
the conquest of Peru. The laurels of that 
conquest belong by right to Francisco Pizar- 
ro, and De Soto manifested no inclination to 
snatch them from his brow ; but, as the first 
honorable man of importance to arrive in 
Spain from Peru, with his pockets well lined 
and his claim to nobility well founded, he 
became for a while the observed of all ob- 
servers. 

The king not only received him well, but 
honored him by accepting a loan — which, 
strange to say, he repaid. "De Soto made 
his home in Seville, where he set up in great 
state, employing a major-domo, or superin- 
tendent of the household, an usher, pages, 
chamberlain, footmen, and all other req- 
70 



THE REWARD OF DEVOTION 

uisites for the establishment of a gentle- 
man." 

And it was not a bachelor establishment, 
either, that he set up in that grand old city 
by the banks of the Guadalquivir, for, some 
time after his arrival, he took thither as its 
mistress none other than Dona Isabel de 
Soto, born Bobadilla, second daughter of the 
infamous Pedrarias. 

The course of true love had not run very 
smooth with these two lovers, but it had run 
a long while, and nobody can with truth deny 
that Ferdinand was entitled to his Isabel, 
having fought for her and waited for her 
fifteen long and weary years. In the end, as 
all true lovers will rejoice to learn, he was 
successful in getting possession of her hand, 
having won it years before; but it was only 
after the death of Don Pedro, who sought to 
frustrate his designs by leaving his second 
daughter penniless. 

The hardened old wretch had died, after 
lingering long in physical agony and mental 
anguish. His conscience was troubled, not 
at the thought of the misery he had caused 
in this world, but at the prospect of what he 
was to receive in the next. The only repara- 
tion he could make (the priests at his bedside 
71 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

assured him) was a liberal donation to the 
Church, and the way in which he did this was 
eminently characteristic of the man - fiend 
Pedrarias. 

In his gloomy castle at Badajoz, ever since 
her father had assassinated her affianced hus- 
band, had lived his eldest daughter, Maria. 
She had remained true to the memory of 
Balboa, as her sister had continued faithful 
to^De Soto, and her father rewarded this 
constancy by bequeathing her his vast fort- 
une, for the founding of a nunnery, over 
which she was to rule as abbess. Unless she 
went into the nunnery, poor Isabel was left 
at the mercy of the world, without a centavo 
to her name ; but at this juncture arrived 
Ferdinand de Soto from Peru, and she be- 
came the wife of a rich and powerful noble 
and the envy of her sex throughout all Spain. 

Thus far, in narrating the adventures of 
De Soto, we have followed the accounts 
which have seemed most entitled to credence ; 
but all are not alike, and, indeed, some writ- 
ers have stated that Ferdinand first met his 
wife at court, whither she had gone with her 
mother, the widow of Pedrarias. Also, that, 
instead of being at feud with her father, he 
had lived with him in Nicaragua, without 
72 



THE REWARD OF DEVOTION 

falling out at all. Whether this be true or 
not, most of us would rather believe that 
Ferdinand had met his Isabel in youth, and 
was constant to her throughout, and that 
he returned to Spain for the sole purpose of 
laying his hard -won fortune at her feet. Con- 
stancy in man is such a rare jewel, and so 
seldom discovered, that we cannot refrain 
from making the most of that which is said 
to have sparkled on the breast of Ferdinand 
de Soto. 

Ferdinand was under forty years of age at 
the time he settled down in Seville and be- 
came a gentleman of leisure. As entitled to 
that distinction by birth, he was made a 
knight of Santiago, and felt bound to sustain 
the dignities of his position by a large es- 
tablishment and vast expenditure. Within 
two years his fortune had been reduced more 
than one-half, and, having become wearied 
of inaction, he cast about for some means 
of replenishing his coffers and for a field in 
which to exercise his energies. 

That field seemed to open to him in the 
then boundless region called Florida, which 
was in the main unknown, and extended from 
the most northern territory of which the 
Spaniards had knowledge to the confines of 
73 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

Mexico, Though Ponce de Leon had landed 
on the coast of Florida in 15 13, and eight 
years later had received his death-wound in 
a conflict with Indians there, little was known 
of the country until the attempted conquest 
by Panfilo de Narvaez in 1527. 

This unfortunate Spaniard, who had op- 
posed Cortes in Mexico, where he lost an eye 
in the fight at Cempoalla, obtained from 
Emperor Charles V. permission to conquer 
Florida, of which country he was made 
adelantado, or military governor. He landed 
on its eastern coast, in a large bay open to the 
sea, with a force of four hundred men and 
forty horses. After crossing the peninsula, 
and after enduring incredible hardships, his 
command, diminished to about one-half its 
original strength, launched upon the waters 
of the gulf, with the intention of seeking a 
port of Cuba or Mexico. 

The vessels in which Narvaez and his men 
had sailed to Florida could not be found, 
and they constructed rude barks from the 
wood of native trees, with nails forged from 
their bits and bridles, and sails made from 
their garments. They embarked, it is sup- 
posed, in the Bay of St. Marks, and coasted 
southwardly, occasionally landing and fight- 
74 



THE REWARD OF DEVOTION 

ing with the Indians for food to keep them 
from starvation. A gale drove the boat in 
which was Narvaez out to sea, and he was 
never heard of after, while all the rest of his 
men save four perished through shipwreck 
or starvation. Nine years later, after most 
wonderful adventures with various Indian 
tribes, these four arrived in Mexico, and in 
1537 one of their number, Cabeza de Vaca, 
met and conversed with Ferdinand de Soto 
in Spain. 



VI 

ADELANTADO AND GOVERNOR 
1538-1539 

IT was a wonderful story Cabeza de Vaca 
had to tell, of perils many and narrow 
escapes from savage Indians, and as he had 
been ten years absent, all the while exposed 
to danger, it might have been imagined that 
he had endured enough. But no, Alvar 
Nuno Cabeza de Vaca was of a piece with 
the others who had suffered in various parts 
of the New World. As soon as he reached 
home and friends, and was surrounded with 
comforts, he reverted regretfully to the ac- 
tive life he had led in the unknown country, 
and thought sorrowfully upon the chances 
he had let sHp to become the richest man in 
the world. 

As a matter of fact, the worthy Cabeza de 

Vaca (or Cow's Head, as his name might be 

literally rendered) found nothing but hard 

usage in the lands he had explored, and re- 

76 



ADELANTADO AND GOVERNOR 

turned without even a grain of the gold with 
which his imagination filled them. But the 
gold was there, he convinced himself by fre- 
quently recalling what the various Indians 
had told him; and the air of mystery and 
reserve which he siimmoned up when ques- 
tioned by friends convinced them, also, that 
Seiior Vaca had much to reveal — if only he 
would reveal it! 

Especially impressed was De Soto, who, 
just before the return of Vaca to Spain, had 
secured from the emperor all the rights and 
titles in Florida which had been vacated by 
the death of Narvaez. Emperor Charles 
was very generous always — with other peo- 
ples' properties — and had bestowed this same 
region of Florida — or the conquest of it — 
first upon Ponce de Leon, then upon Pan- 
filo de Narvaez, before he handed it over 
to De Soto. Each one of them had offered 
to explore and conquer it at his own ex- 
pense, and, as this was a consideration which 
always had weight with the emperor, each 
one had been granted his request as soon as 
proffered. 

Like the foolish explorers before him, Fer- 
dinand de Soto was "created" by Charles 
adelantado and governor of Florida, and, in 
77 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

addition, captain-general of Cuba, which isl- 
and he desired as a base of supplies in his pro- 
jected conquest of the vast and far-stretch- 
ing empire which he presumed to exist on 
the main. Cabeza de Vaca was offered a 
high position under him; but he himself de- 
sired a government of his own, and was 
given that of the Rio de la Plata, as a sop 
for relinquishing a country where he had en- 
dured unutterable privations, and which (it 
was afterwards hinted) he would not have 
accepted on any terms. 

De Soto was thenceforth known as the 
adelantado and the governor; and, as titles 
cost the emperor nothing, he also made 
his favorite a marquis, bestowing upon him, 
with magnificent liberality, a marquisate in 
Florida, thirty leagues in length and fifteen 
in breadth — which was to be won by his 
sword. 

When it became noised abroad that the 
gallant hero of Peru was about setting forth 
on an independent expedition, recruits came 
flocking in from every direction, attracted 
by the splendor and magnificence with which 
De Soto was surrounded. The cavaliers of 
Spain vied with one another in securing places 
of honor, the rich ones pouring out their 
78 



ADELANTADO AND GOVERNOR 

money with a lavishness exceeded only by 
that of their leader himself, and the poor 
ones being assisted by him in procuring ex- 
travagant equipments. 

One day, as he was about sitting down 
to dinner, a brilliant band of Portuguese hi- 
dalgos came clattering into the court-yard 
of his great house in Seville. They were su- 
perbly mounted and clad in polished armor. 
Descending from the gallery overlooking the 
court, De Soto gracefully welcomed them and 
invited the whole party to dinner, afterwards 
sending out his major - domo to secure for 
them the best quarters in the city. Thus the 
cavaliers gathered around him, and in the 
course of a year the equipment was com- 
plete. Nearly a thousand persons assembled 
at the port of San Lucar, in April, 1538, 
whence sailed De Soto's magnificent expedi- 
tion, comprised of ten vessels, large and small. 
The governor and his wife, together with their 
brilliant retinue, embarked in the San Cris- 
tobal, of eight hundred tons, and the fleet set 
sail, to the blare of trumpets and amid sal- 
vos of artillery. 

Two weeks later the vessels dropped anch- 
or off Gomera, in the Canary Islands, arriv- 
ing there on Easter Sunday. The governor 
79 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

of the" island, the Count of Gomera (wrote 
one of the Portuguese hidalgos in this gallant 
company), "was apparelled all in white — 
cloak, jerkin, hose, shoes, and cap — so that 
he looked like a governor of gypsies. He 
received the adelantado with much pleas- 
ure, lodging him well, and the rest with 
him, gratuitously. To Dofia Isabel he gave 
a natural daughter of his to be a waiting- 
maid," and entertained the entire company 
right joyously for a week. 

There were twenty-four ecclesiastics aboard 
ship — monks, priests, and clerics — and a 
large number of young nobles sumptuously 
arrayed, with silken doublets and cassocks, 
"silk over silk," and with retinues of servile 
attendants. The reverendos did not seek to 
mar the festivities, for they were going out 
merely to convert the heathen ; while the cav- 
aliers, many of them, devoted themselves to 
Dona Isabel and the attractive damsels in 
her train. 

Among them all there was none more 
beautiful than the daughter of the Count of 
Gomera, who was less a " serving-maid " than 
companion to the fair Isabel, and who, be- 
fore the voyage was over, won the heart of 
a cavalier named Nuiio de Tobar. He was 
80 



ADELANTADO AND GOVERNOR 

one of the men who had returned from Peru 
with De Soto, his fortune made and the best 
of his life still before him. Tobar went out 
as lieutenant-general in the expedition; but 
when, after arriving in Cuba, De Soto found 
that he had been trifling with the affections of 
the lovely Leonora, daughter of the count, he 
was summarily deposed. 

Ferdinand and his wife regarded Leonora 
in the light of a daughter, having none of 
their own, and were wounded to the quick by 
the ungallant behavior of Tobar. It is said 
that De Soto, in addition to deposing Tobar, 
challenged him to mortal combat, as having 
committed an affront which could only be 
palliated by the shedding of blood. As such 
an encounter, with one whose sword was in- 
vincible, was equivalent to a sentence of 
execution, the young man begged for mercy, 
promising to make every reparation in his 
power. His life was contemptuously grant- 
ed him; but he never recovered the con- 
fidence of his commander, though he served 
him long and well. 

This untoward incident had not developed, 

fortunately, before the arrival of the fleet at 

Santiago de Cuba, which port was reached 

at the end of a month after leaving Gomera, 

8i 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

where the new governor was received with 
great rejoicings. The festivities conducted 
by the wealthy residents of Santiago lasted 
nearly a week, and consisted of bull - fights, 
horse-racing, and tournaments by day, with 
banquets, balls, and theatrical displays by 
night. The planters of the island came into 
town with numerous fine horses, which they 
presented to such cavaliers as were in need 
of them, and, in fact, to many who had not, 
so that some of the noblemen possessed three 
or four each, all of them mettlesome chargers, 
finely caparisoned. 

These planters vied with one another in 
extending hospitalities to the new arrivals, 
sending horses and mules for the governor 
and his lady, with their suites, to ride out to 
their estates in the countr>^ where they were 
entertained in baronial style. Among these 
gentrv there was one Vasco Porcallo, who 
lived near the town of Trinidad, having a vast 
estate, which he had bought with the proceeds 
of long years spent in fighting the enemies of 
Spain. He had thought to settle there for 
life, and had surrounded himseh with every 
luxury that money could purchase in that 
lonely island. But on his visit to Santiago 
he met so many kindred spirits and saw so 
82 



ADELANTADO AND GOVERNOR 

much that reminded him of his fighting days 
that he caught the enthusiasm of the cava- 
liers and volunteered his services to De Soto, 
out of hand. As he had great wealth and a 
lavish disposition, and, moreover, was pos- 
sessed of military skill, De Soto accepted 
his offer at once. He was made lieutenant- 
general, in place of Tobar, and was so elated 
thereby that he showered the army with his 
gifts. He gave a vast amount of provisions 
to the fleet, and contributed heavily to its 
armament, besides presenting to various cav- 
aliers who took his fancy more than fifty 
blooded horses. Thirty-six horses were in- 
cluded in the outfit he took with him to 
Florida, and a great number of Indian and 
negro servants and slaves. 

All Cuba was aflame over the approaching 
conquest of the peninsula, which lay but a 
comparatively short distance away, yet had 
never been explored. Nearly forty years 
had passed since Columbus discovered the 
Bahamas and Cuba, thirty since the latter 
was circumnavigated, and twenty -five since 
its people were subjugated. Yet Florida, 
only a few miles distant across the Gulf 
Stream, still existed as a wilderness await- 
ing the coming of its conqueror. 
83 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

Sending his jfleet around to Havana, where 
Dona Isabel was instructed to await his arri- 
val, De Soto spent three months in a careful 
inspection of the island, acquainting himself 
with its resources and accumulating supplies 
for his expedition. Travelling overland from 
Santiago, by the way of Trinidad and Puerto 
Principe, the governor arrived at Havana 
towards the end of August, and there re- 
mained several months, attending to the 
needs of the people and establishing his gov- 
ernment on a sure foundation. 

The commerce of Cuba had risen to such 
proportions as to attract the attention of the 
Caribbean corsairs, who had assailed both 
Havana and Santiago; thus much repairing 
of fortifications and planning of new ones 
was necessary, to secure the island from their 
depredations. 

During this while, a small vessel, with a 
selected crew under Juan de Anasco, was 
engaged in cruising the Florid ian waters in 
search of a harbor commodious enough for 
the fleet. This was found, after several 
months of dangerous navigating among the 
shoals and cays of the Florida Reefs. Two 
voyages were made before the end was 
attained, and on the second trip the frail 
84 



ADELANTADO AND GOVERNOR 

craft came near foundering, for a tempest 
assailed her, and the crew passed two months 
on an uninhabited islet, where their only- 
subsistence consisted of raw shell -fish and 
wild fowl which they killed with stones and 
clubs. 

This venture of Anasco's was the fifth or 
sixth that had come to grief on the coast of 
Florida, and it did not augur well for the next 
one. No one can say, however, that Ferdi- 
nand de Soto did not use great caution and 
care in opening the way for his expedition, 
even though it ended in greater ruin and 
disaster than any other that had preceded it 
in America. 

The winter of 153 8- 1539 passed away, with 
the cavaliers in Cuba worn to desperation 
from lack of employment and sighing for a 
sight of the land for which they had set out 
so many months before. It was not until 
May, 1539, that De Soto finally set his sails 
for Florida, more than a year after he had 
departed from Spain. 

Just as he was getting his last supply of 
sea-stores aboard, in the harbor of Havana, 
a ship came into port bearing as its most 
important passenger an old comrade of his, 
Heman Ponce, with whom he had been most 
7 85 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

intimately associated in Peru. In truth, 
these two had formed a sort of partnership, 
common in those days, by which they had 
agreed to share equally all gains, honors, etc., 
that might be acquired by either. Ponce 
was now on his way to Spain, with a fortune 
in gold and gems, which he was by no means 
willing to share with De Soto, who, by the 
terms of their agreement, was entitled to the 
half of it. By the same terms, Ponce was 
also entitled to his moiety of De Soto's 
estate, and, as well, to participate in the 
honors which had been showered upon him 
by his sovereign. 

These, indeed, the open-handed De Soto 
proffered to Ponce; but the latter professed 
himself as satisfied, and content to leave 
matters as they were. But his former part- 
ner delayed his voyage for the sake of honor- 
ing him, took him to his palace on shore, 
seated him at his table, and proclaimed that 
his ancient comrade, Hernan Ponce, was 
henceforth to be addressed as "governor" 
and to receive the same attentions as him- 
self. 

Still, Senor Ponce was uneasy, for some- 
thing seemed to prey upon his mind. Going 
aboard his vessel in the harbor, in the dead 
86 



ADELANTADO AND GOVERNOR 

of night, he caused several large boxes filled 
with gems to be taken ashore, where he had 
them buried, for fear that De Soto would 
discover his wealth and insist upon his share. 
But the frank yet wary Ferdinand had sus- 
pected something of the kind, and had 
stationed sentinels on the watch, who sur- 
prised Sefior Ponce at his task, and, driving 
him away, bore oR the treasure in triumph. 
It was taken to the governor, unknown, of 
course, to Ponce, who let his troubles be 
known, the following day, over the wine at 
dinner. De Soto whispered a word to his 
major - domo, who went out and soon re- 
turned with the stolen coffers intact. 

"Are these your gems?" he asked, indig- 
nantly; "and did you bury them in order to 
deprive me of my portion ? Take them, then, 
and as promptly as possible sail with them 
to Spain. My own fortune, my titles, and 
my honors I consider also yours, and have 
executed writings to that effect. Even now, 
I say, will you share with me in the con- 
quest?" 

The humiliated Ponce protested that he 

desired nothing more than what he had, and, 

to show that he held his comrade in esteem, 

begged that he be allowed to present Doiia 

87 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

Isabel with ten thousand dollars' worth of 
gems. This generous proffer De Soto, with a 
laugh in his sleeve, consented to accept, and 
the gems were duly delivered to the fair lady. 
But there is a sequel to this transaction. 
After De Soto had sailed, and was well on 
his way to Florida, the wily Ponce demanded 
his jewels back, asserting that they had been 
obtained by fraud. Doila Isabel sagely re- 
plied that they were in her possession; that 
Hernan Ponce owed her husband far more 
than they were worth, on old debts, for 
which he was liable to arrest, and arrested he 
should be forthwith. On receipt of which 
discouraging information he promptly de- 
parted for Spain. 



VII 

THE LANDING IN FLORIDA 
1539 

DE SOTO'S fleet, in which he sailed from 
Havana for Florida, on Sunday, May 
18, 1539, consisted of five large vessels, two 
pinnaces, and two caravels. Dona Isabel 
greatly desired to accompany the expedition, 
but was compelled to remain in Cuba as 
regent. With her were left the wives of 
Nuno de Tobar, of Don Carlos, who had 
married a niece of De Soto, and of Baltasar 
de Gallegos, who had sacrificed a fine vine- 
yard in Spain in order to gratify his ambi- 
tion to be a soldier. 

The castle-tower is still pointed out in 
Havana from the battlements of which 
these sorrowing wives waved farewell to the 
fleet as it ploughed its way into the open 
sea. It was to be a last farewell for Dofia 
Isabel, who never set eyes on Ferdinand 
again. Fifteen years she had waited for this 
89 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

— to be united, at last, to the chosen com- 
panion of her heart, only to be separated 
from him, after a short period of wedded 
bliss, then to lose him forever. He sailed 
away with that gallant company, and the 
wilderness swallowed him up. 

Thanks to the precautions De Soto had 
taken, a safe harbor was made in the great 
bay of Espiritu Santo, on the west coast 
of Florida, which was reached on May 25th. 
It is now known as Tampa Bay, and at 
present is a flourishing winter resort, between 
which and Havana frequent steamers per- 
form the voyage in a few hours, which in 
De Soto's time consumed a week. There 
were nearly a thousand men in the expedi- 
tion, with three hundred and fifty horses, so 
the debarkation was a slow and toilsome 
process, and was not accomplished until the 
last of May. 

During this time the savages on shore 
had not been inactive, for they were alert 
and vigorous, expert in the use of bow-and- 
arrows, and efficient with their war-clubs. 
They had watched the progress of the fleet 
as it sailed along the coast, as numerous 
signal-smokes attested, and by the time it 
had come to anchor were gathered to oppose 
90 



THE LANDING IN FLORIDA 

a landing. But they had not shown them- 
selves, though lying in ambush in the forest, 
and the first detachment of soldiers, about 
three hundred in number, camped on the 
beach without taking any precautions against 
surprise. 

The night air was warm and filled with the 
fragrance of a thousand flowers, so the sol- 
diers threw themselves upon the sands and 
slept, wherever they could find a couch pre- 
pared by nature. Just before dawn they 
were awakened by the war-whoops of the 
savages, who broke upon them without other 
warning, out of the darkness, and- wounded 
several with their javelins and arrows. So 
suddenly aroused, and attacked by an un- 
seen enemy, the troops were thrown into 
confusion, and, instead of making a counter- 
attack, crowded tumultuously to the shore. 

There was then a hasty buckling -on of 
armor and grasping of weapons on board 
ship, each cavalier being spurred to action 
by the terrible tumult ashore. Into the 
boats tumbled the doughty warriors, burning 
to have a brush with the enemy, and as dawn 
broke and revealed the Indians they leaped 
ashore and charged upon them with great 
shouts. Among the foremost of those to the 
91 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

rescue was Lieutenant-General Porcallo, who 
seized and mounted the first horse he could 
find and led the charge. He was sustained 
by seven troopers only; but these were suf- 
ficient to put the savages to flight, and the 
lusty Porcallo, having pursued them for quite 
a distance into the forest, soon returned to 
the beach, brandishing his lance and loudly 
vaunting his victory. While in the midst of 
his boastings, his gallant steed staggered and 
fell to the ground stone dead, having been 
shot through the ribs by an Indian arrow. 
Then the boastings of Porcallo were louder 
than ever, and he did not fail to call attention 
to the fact that his horse was the first to fall 
in battle with the pagans, and his weapon the 
first to be turned against them. 

The Spaniards were astonished at the 
force with which the arrow that pierced the 
horse had been sent, and gathered around 
to examine the unfortunate beast. As to 
the Indians, says the chronicler of the ex- 
pedition, "they are exceedingly ready with 
their weapons, and so warlike and nimble 
that they have no fear at all of infantry ; for 
if these charge upon them they flee, but when 
they turn their backs are soon again upon 
them. They avoid nothing more easily than 
9? 



THE LANDING IN FLORIDA 

the flight of an arrow, and as they are con- 
tinually running about and in motion, neither 
arquebuse nor cross-bow can be aimed at 
them with effect. Before a Christian can 
make a single shot with either, an Indian will 
discharge three or four arrows; and he sel- 
dom misses his aim. Where the arrow meets 
with no armor, it pierces as deeply as the 
shaft from a cross-bow. Their bows are very 
perfect, while the arrows are made of certain 
canes, like reeds, so heavy and rigid that 
when their ends are sharpened they will pass 
through a shield. Some are pointed with the 
bone of a fish, sharp and like a chisel ; others 
have a stone, like the point of a diamond." 

This testimony as to the bravery of the 
Floridian savages and the efficacy of their 
weapons is very important. It gives us an 
idea of the kind of people De Soto encoun- 
tered at the outset. Instead of finding them 
less warlike, as he progressed with the in- 
vasion, he was to experience yet greater 
resistance from the natives of the interior. 
An Indian village was discovered near the 
shore, but deserted, at one end of which was 
a sort of temple, having a wooden fowl with 
"gilded eyes" perched upon it, and at the 
other was the dwelling of the chief, or 
93 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

cacique. This dwelling occupied the summit 
of a great artificial mound, probably a con- 
struction of the mysterious "mound-build- 
ers," who, however, had passed away before 
the advent of the Spaniards in America. A 
few pearls were found within the temple, 
but they were of little value, having been 
injured by fire. De Soto was to find bushels 
of such pearls later in his journey, and he 
looked upon these as promising evidences of 
the country's richness. 

After the troops and munitions had been 
landed, the governor took up his residence 
in the chief's house, and lodged his soldiers 
in the huts that were grouped about the 
great mound. This mound, by the way, is 
said to exist to-day, and is one of the objects 
by which the place of debarkation and the 
subsequent wanderings of the Spaniards 
have been traced. The forest growth was 
cleared away "for the distance of a bow- 
shot" around the mound and village, and, 
while the great camp was being put in order, 
De Soto sent out messengers to find the 
cacique, whose name, an Indian captive told 
him, was Ucita. But Ucita was not only 
wary, he was fierce and crafty. Moreover, he 
was greatly incensed against all Spaniards, 
94 



THE LANDING IN FLORIDA 

on account of a fiendish act committed by 
Narvaez when in Florida. Enraged at some 
action of the cacique, he had caused his nose 
to be cut off, and, not content with this act 
of cruelty, he had cast Ucita's poor old 
mother to the dogs, to be torn to pieces before 
his very eyes. 

The cacique had sworn vengeance upon 
every Spaniard who should fall into his 
hands, and had already sacrificed several iin- 
fortunates who had been lured ashore by 
stratagem about twelve years previous to the 
arrival of De Soto. The wife of Narvaez had 
been left behind in Cuba when her husband 
sailed for Florida, and, becoming alarmed at 
his long absence, had sent a pinnace with a 
score of men to get news of him. They ar- 
rived at Tampa Bay, and, sailing near to 
shore, saw a folded paper, evidently a letter, 
in the cleft end of a reed stuck in the sands. 
The Spaniards naturally supposed this might 
be a letter left by Narvaez, before he set out 
on his disastrous march, and a boat contain- 
ing four men was sent ashore to get it. The 
moment the keel struck the sands a horde of 
savages rushed out from ambush and, sur- 
rounding the men, took them to their village. 
At sight of this, the cowardly crew aboard 
95 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

the pinnace made all haste to sail away, leav- 
ing the miserable captives to their fate, which 
was a horrible one, indeed. 

The Indians belonged to Ucita's band, and 
when that savage found these hated white 
men in his clutches he resolved to put them 
to the torture. Three of them were shot to 
death with arrows, their sufferings being 
prolonged as much as possible, but the fourth 
was stretched upon a wooden frame in the 
shape of a gridiron over a fire. He was a 
3'oung man, hardly eighteen years of age, and 
came of a noble family that lived in Seville. 
As the cruel flames scorched his skin he cried 
out in agony, and the heart of the cacique's 
daughter was touched with pity. She was a 
comely maiden, much beloved by the chief, 
and though his vengeance was far from 
satisfied he listened to her entreaties. He 
released his captive, and, after directing that 
his wounds should be dressed, sent him out to 
watch the graves in a cemeter>^ It was a 
lonely spot, in the depths of a forest ; but the 
youth felt more secure amid the dead, and 
surrounded by wild beasts, than in the 
presence of the chief. His duty was to pre- 
vent the prowling beasts of prey from robbing 
the shallow graves of their contents, and so 
96 



THE LANDING IN FLORIDA 

he was given a bow and arrows, and warned 
that if one corpse was removed he should be 
burned aUve. 

One night, overcome by weariness, he fell 
asleep, and was awakened by the falling of a 
coffin-lid, only in time to see an animal mak- 
ing off with the body of a boy, son of a man 
of consequence in the tribe. The night was 
very dark, but he let fly an arrow and shot 
the beast, which proved to be a panther, 
through the heart. His prowess was greatly 
admired by the Indians, and for a time se- 
cured him immunity from harm at the hands 
of the cacique; but the time came when the 
latter determined to carry out the sentence 
of death, and the captive was warned by the 
daughter to fly for protection to a neighbor- 
ing chief, named Mocoso. This cacique was 
in love with Ucita's daughter, and for her 
sake, she assured the youth, he would be 
welcomed and sheltered from harm. He 
succeeded in reaching Mocoso's territory, and 
was warmly received by the chieftain, who 
soon became greatly attached to the captive, 
whom he stoutly defended when Ucita at- 
tempted to regain his prisoner for the purpose 
of putting him to death. He thus incurred 
the enmity of Cacique Ucita, who leagued his 
97 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

brother chiefs against him and ravaged his 
territory, but without forcing him to give up 
the young Spaniard. 

All these particulars were related to De 
Soto, who was naturally desirous of securing 
the release of a fellow-countryman, and sent 
a troop of lancers into Mocoso's country for 
that purpose. It happened that about the 
same time the young man, whose name was 
Juan Ortiz, heard of the arrival of Spaniards 
in the bay of Espiritu Santo, and begged his 
master to allow him to join them. The 
generous savage not only gave his consent, 
but sent him to the coast with an escort and 
a message of welcome to the strangers, say- 
ing: "Go to the chieftain of this great army 
which has landed on our shores. Tell him 
what I have done for you, and entreat him, 
in return, not to lay waste my territory nor 
do harm to my people. In setting you free, 
while you were in my power, I shall hope to 
win the favor of your great lord, whose 
alliance I would fain secure against the 
enemies I have made on your account." 

Juan Ortiz and his escort encountered the 
lancers sent in search of him as they were 
emerging from a dense forest, and the meet- 
ing is described by Rodrigo Ran j el, De Soto's 
98 



THE LANDING IN FLORIDA 

secretary, who wrote a narrative of the ex- 
pedition, in the manner following: "Towards 
sunset, being off their road, because the 
Indian who was their guide led them wan- 
dering and confused, it pleased God that they 
[the troopers] descried at a distance some 
twenty Indians, painted with a kind of red 
ointment that these Indians put on when they 
go to war or wish to make a fine appearance. 
They wore many feathers and had their bows 
and arrows. And when the Christians ran 
at them the Indians fled to a hill, and one of 
them came forth into the path, lifting up his 
voice and saying : ' Sirs, for the love of God 
and the holy Mary, slay not me; for I am a 
Christian like yourselves, and was born in 
Seville, and my name is Juan Ortiz.' The 
delight of the Christians was very great, in 
God's having given them a tongue and a 
guide, of which, at that time, they were in 
great need; and, with every one very much 
elated, Baltasar de Gallegos [the commander] 
and all the Indians who came with him, re- 
turned that night very late to the camp." 

The governor received Juan Ortiz like a 
son who had been given up for lost, seated 
him on his right at table, and ordered that he 
should be fully equipped, with fine apparel, 

99 
L. OFC. 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

the best of armor, and an excellent horse. 
Thenceforth he was one of the most honored 
men in the command, and, as he had a good 
knowledge of the Indian language as spoken 
in Florida, he became invaluable as an in- 
terpreter. 

The numerical strength of De Soto's army in Florida 
is variously given, as follows: " A thousand men and 350 
horses," Theodore Irving; the same, J. S. C. Abbott; 
"570 men, 223 horses," J. G. Shea; "nearly a thou- 
sand," Rev. E. E. Hale; "mil hombrcs" (1000 men), 
Cronau, Spanish edition; "600," EncyclopcBdia Brit- 
annica. Chambers' Encyclopcedia, and Hakluyl; " 570 
men, not including the sailors" — fully 700, Ranjel and 
the Fidalgo; " 620 men, 223 horses," Biedma. 



VIII 

IN THE FLORIDIAN FORESTS 
1539 

FERDINAND DE SOTO himself wrote, 
respecting the acquisition of Juan Ortiz : 
"We rejoice no little over this interpreter, 
for he speaks the language ; and although 
he had forgotten his own, yet it returned 
to him. . . . He puts a new life into us, in 
affording the means of our understanding 
these people, for without him I know not 
what would become of us. Glory be to God, 
who by His goodness has directed all, so that 
it appears as if He had taken this enterprise 
in His especial keeping!" 

This letter of De Soto's was written July 
9, 15,39, at the port of Espiritu Santo, to the 
magistrates whom he had left in charge of 
affairs in Cuba. In it, also, he makes men- 
tion of what little information had been ob- 
tained, through Juan Ortiz, respecting the 
inland region which he purposed to explore: 

8 lOI 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

"There is a town called Ocalla, where is an 
abundance of fowl, a multitude of turkeys, 
kept in pens, and herds of tame deer that are 
tended. What this means I do not under- 
stand, unless they be cattle, of which we 
brought the knowledge with us. He says, 
also, there are many trades among that peo- 
ple, an abundance of gold and silver, and 
many pearls. May it please God that this 
be so ; for of what these Indians say I believe 
nothing but what I see ; although they know, 
and have it for a saying, that if they lie to 
me it will cost them their lives!" 

We thus have a pen- picture of De Soto 
at this time, sketched by himself. We find 
him, at the outset of this great adventure, 
disposed to be just towards the Indians, but 
at the same time inclined to exact of them 
the "pound of flesh," even though their 
lives be sacrificed. Oviedo the historian says 
that he "was much given to the sport of 
slaying Indians, from the time that he went 
on military expeditions with the governor, 
Pedrarias Davila, in the provinces of Castilla 
del Oro and of Nicaragua"; but, if what we 
have been able to discover is true, he was not 
greatly given to this " sport " previous to the 
year 1540. As he became entangled in the 
102 



IN THE FLORIDIAN FORESTS 

morasses of Florida, with faint prospect of 
emerging with either the gold he sought or 
the honors he hoped to gain, his disposition 
grew morose. Such Indians as then fell 
into his hands fared badly. 

It was, doubtless, gold that De Soto craved 
above all other things; but he had no as- 
surance, either in what had been revealed 
by Narvaez or by information obtained from 
Juan Ortiz, that gold existed in the country. 
Pearls there were, said honest Juan, but no 
gold, so far as his knowledge went. Yet, 
with the gaining of gold as his object, 
Ferdinand de Soto set out from Espiritu 
Santo on one of the most desperate and 
protracted wanderings known to history. 
Sending his largest vessels back to Havana, 
and retaining only two brigantines and a 
caravel for coast service, thus cutting off all 
hopes of a speedy return that might be in- 
dulged in by his men, the governor struck 
inland from the great bay about the mid- 
dle of July. He had not found, the region 
roundabout sufficiently fertile for a settle- 
ment, so he took with him on the march a 
drove of three hundred hogs, which had been 
intended for the settlers, and nearly all the 
horses. A valiant veteran, Pedro Calderon, 
103 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

was left as commander of the port, and with 
him thirty cavalry and seventy infantry, 
provisioned for two years. 

De Soto gave the order and the irregular 
columns were soon in motion, the cavalry in 
advance, the infantry bringing up the rear, 
with the drove of swine straggling along in 
charge of herders specially detailed for the 
purpose. This herd of swine was regarded 
as the mainstay of the army, in case starva- 
tion should threaten ; but was to be reserved 
to the last, as a nucleus for the colony's live- 
stock. 

No more brilliant pageant has ever been 
seen in Florida than this assemblage of mailed 
knights and footmen, with shining helms, 
prancing steeds, flaunting banners, and glis- 
tening weapons. It was a company such 
as might have been gathered for assault upon 
Moorish castle, citadel of Saracen, or pilgrim- 
age to holy shrines. Every man was a cru- 
sader, yet every soldier was bent upon ac- 
quiring wealth enough to enable him to 
retire to Spain and lead a life of luxury. 

The trumpets sounded, their blasts echo- 
ing through the forests of pine and over the 
broad savannas where flocked the cranes and 
curlews. The expedition had started, that 
104 



IN THE FLORIDIAN FORESTS 

much - vaunted enterprise upon which De 
Soto had lavished all his wealth, and for the 
return of which his good wife was to look 
long years in vain. It began with a mis- 
adventure, in which figured conspicuously 
that fantastic rival of the " Knight of La 
Mancha," Vasco Porcallo de Figueroa. 

Word came to De Soto that the cacique 
Ucita was concealed in a swamp not far dis- 
tant and near the line of march. Having 
used all his endeavors to induce him to come 
in, the governor was not disposed to give the 
chieftain further thought; but old Porcallo 
insisted that he should be captured and re- 
buked, if not punished, for his lack of cour- 
tesy. He insisted, also, that he was the man 
to effect that capture, and, to humor him, De 
Soto placed a troop of horse at his disposal. 

"Ah, ha, now we shall see!" shouted the 
old cavalier as he rode down the lines, with 
the troopers clattering at his heels. " Do 
you go on, senor governor, and I will soon 
join you with that caitiff savage a prisoner, 
or his head on a pole." 

"Do him no harm, unless strictly in de- 
fence," was De Soto's answer. "We do not 
wish to war upon the natives, especially at 
the beginning of our march." 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

"I know," rejoined Porcallo, and he was 
off at a gallop, his horse tearing through the 
forest at so swift a pace that soon the ca- 
cique's stronghold was in view. It was a vast 
and dismal swamp, in the centre of which was 
an island covered with "hammock" growth, 
matted together with vines. An Indian mes- 
senger met Porcallo, warning him of the dif- 
ficulties and dangers in the way, but the old 
knight merely scoffed. 

"Come on, my merry men!" he shouted to 
his escort. "We have him securely trapped. 
It is only to go in and fetch him out." So 
saying, he put spurs to his horse — and found 
himself bogged in a quagmire. 

He fumed and swore, he called on all the 
saints, and then he called on his soldiers ; but 
the former did not respond and the latter 
could not reach him. The weight of his 
heavy armor caused his struggling beast to 
sink deeper and deeper into the mire, until 
he was actually in danger of suffocation. At 
last, by a mighty effort, he extricated him- 
self from his dangerous position and reached 
firm ground once more. But he was covered 
with mud from head to foot. His shining 
armor and the splendid accoutrements of his 
steed were bespattered, and he made such a 
io6 



IN THE FLORIDIAN FORESTS 

sorry spectacle that the soldiers were con- 
vulsed with merriment. Spanish gravity is 
a thing not easily upset, but in this instance 
the soldiers threw all restraint to the winds 
and gave vent to derisive shouts and laugh- 
ter. Their taunts were more than the vain 
Porcallo could endure, and the instant he 
rejoined De Soto he resigned his commission 
and left the office of lieutenant-general once 
more vacant. 

Old Porcallo was vain, and his motive in 
joining the expedition — which was said to be 
the hope of getting slaves for his plantations — 
was ignoble ; but he was generous to the last. 
Before embarking for Cuba he gave away 
all his horses, accoutrements, and munitions, 
and bestowed upon the army his vast sup- 
ply of provisions, reserving only enough to 
last him the voyage. Even at this cost, as 
the sequel will show, he bought his freedom 
cheaply; and though he retired because of 
pique, he afterwards had great reason to re- 
joice at the disaster which, for a time, cov- 
ered him with shame and confusion. 

Beyond the province of Mocoso lay that of 
"Paracoxi, who was a wary savage, and had 
learned by sad experience that the Span- 
iards could not be trusted. As Narvaez had 
107 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

passed his way — as was ascertained by find- 
ing the remains of a bridge he had built — it 
is probable that the savage had suffered se- 
verely, and he could not be induced to emerge 
from his retreat, which was in the midst of 
a vast morass. Indeed, the whole country 
was of this character, apparently, from a 
point three leagues beyond Paracoxi's de- 
serted village, and the army was three days 
in traversing a swamp which lay between 
it and the firm land of a rolling prairie. 
While involved in the darkness of this dis- 
mal swamp, lurking Indians, probably some 
of Paracoxi's band, annoyed the soldiers 
exceedingly by discharging arrows at them 
from their hiding-places. Some were killed, 
some were captured, and an attempt was 
made to use the prisoners as guides. Finding, 
however, that they were prone to lead them 
into ambush, the Spaniards let loose their 
dogs upon them, who killed four, by tearing 
them to pieces. 

This is the first act of deliberate cruelty 
which we can fasten upon the soldiers of De 
Soto in Florida; but this mode of inflicting 
death was not unusual with the Spaniards, 
who thereby killed their prisoners without 
waste of ammunition. Alarmed at the pen- 
io8 



IN THE FLORIDIAN FORESTS 

alty which his companions had paid for their 
treachery, another Indian offered to guide the 
army to dry land ; but before it was reached 
a stretch of water was entered which came up 
to the saddles of the cavalry and the shoulders 
of the infantry. It was a league in breadth 
and, in the centre, too deep to be forded. 
Here were discovered the remains of the 
bridge Narvaez had built years before. Two 
trees had been felled, one each side of the 
stream, and the intervening space filled by 
logs tied together and floored with poles. 

This rude structure reminded De Soto of 
the aerial hammock bridges, made of vines, 
which he had seen and often crossed in Peru ; 
and, to encourage his men, he told them that 
the difficulties here were as nothing com- 
pared with what he had encountered on the 
march to Cuzco. He detailed the most ex- 
pert swimmers, with hatchets, to repair the 
bridge; but while they were at work they 
were frequently molested by Indians in ca- 
noes, and two of them severely wounded. 

This difficult waterway is supposed to have 
been near the headwaters of the Hillsboro 
River or on the Ouithlacoochee. Beyond 
it, several miles, lay a beautiful prairie, cov- 
ered with fields of maize ; and as the soldiers 
109 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

had been for days subsisting upon water- 
cresses, they greedily ate the young corn in 
the ear, as they stripped it from the stalk. 
Difficult and dangerous as this passage of the 
swamp had been, De Soto was obliged to send 
a courier back, through a country swarm- 
ing with excited savages, to summon the 
remainder of the army, which had stayed 
behind under command of Lieutenant Luis 
de Moscoso. Two young men, Sylvestre and 
Lopez, were selected for this perilous enter- 
prise, and they accomplished it only by 
riding night and day, following the trail by 
the sagacity of their horses, who picked it 
up like dogs on the scent. During three 
days and nights, these gallant steeds were 
hardly unsaddled and rarely unbridled, their 
riders sleeping in the saddle or standing 
by their heads as they snatched a bite of 
grass. At the perilous ford they found the 
Indians waiting for them in canoes, but they 
dashed through the water at speed, amid 
such a shower of darts and arrows that, 
looking back, they saw the surface covered, 
as with leaves that had fallen from the trees. 
Relays of Indians pursued them to the very 
vicinity of Moscoso 's camp, and, hearing their 
cries, a rescue party dashed out, led by Nuiio 
no 



IN THE FLORIDIAN FORESTS 

de Tobar, on a dapple-gray horse that be- 
came as famous as his rider. 

On the march to reinforce De Soto, it 
seemed to the soldiers that the entire coun- 
try had roused itself to repel the invaders, 
for they were beset by Indians on every side, 
by night and by day. Still, they suffered 
very little from the missiles of the savages, 
who shouted continually: "Keep on, robbers 
and murderers! In Apalachee you will get 
what you deserve ! No quarter will be given 
to captives, who will be hung on the highest 
trees along the trail!" 

They found the governor encamped in a 
land of plenty, but at odds with the cacique, 
who, when invited to a friendly chat, had 
sent word : " I am a king in my own land ; but, 
what is your employment? Why are you 
here? I know, for others of your accursed 
race have been here. It is to wander about 
like vagabonds; to rob the poor, murder the 
defenceless. No, with such as you I want 
no friendship. War only, and never-ending, 
shall be waged against the invaders of our 
soil!" 



IX 

BATTLES WITH THE INDIANS 
1539 

ALL the narratives of this expedition agree 
L that up to this point De Soto had treat- 
ed the Indians with great consideration. 
Three of the four caciques whose territory 
he had passed through had held aloof and 
refused to have aught to do with him. They 
had refrained from attacking the Spaniards, 
probably, on account of their weakness; but 
the fifth cacique, Acuera, the same who had 
sent his defiance to De Soto, enforced his 
remarks by frequent assaults upon the in- 
vaders. His warriors lurked in ambuscade 
about the camps, and not only shot all 
stragglers with their arrows, but dragged 
away and beheaded their victims before they 
could be recovered by their comrades. 

Their vindictiveness was such that they 
even dug up their bodies, marking the graves 
in the daytime and returning to perform 



BATTLES WITH THE INDIANS 

their ghoulish work at night. These remains 
of gallant soldiers were then cut up and 
hung on the highest trees, while their heads 
were borne upon poles, as gory tokens of 
their triumph. The Spaniards retaliated, 
of course, and most cruelly; but, with their 
utmost efforts, they did not succeed in killing 
more than fifty Indians of Acuera's band. 
They scurried through his province with such 
expedition that little injury was done to 
fields of growing grain or to villages ; so that 
Acuera might truly boast that he had ac- 
complished something by his aggressiveness. 
He was a type of the Indians generally 
encountered by De Soto in Florida, which 
were vastly different from those he had 
assisted in harrying in Darien and Peru. 
Except for their lower grade of civilization, 
they more resembled the Aztecs of Mexico 
than any other natives the Spaniards had 
met and subjugated. They opposed the for- 
eigners from the first, encountering Ponce de 
Leon at the coast, resisting the aggressions 
of Pdnfilo de Narvaez, and have left be- 
hind them a prestige fully sustained by the 
fierce Yemassees and Seminoles, who, three 
hundred years later, fought our armies in the 
Everglades. 

113 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

De Soto's scouts had brought him welcome 
information respecting the adjoining prov- 
ince of Ocali: that it was filled with fields of 
maize and dotted with prosperous farm- 
steads, while its forests were abundantly 
supplied with game, such as bear, deer, and 
wild turkeys. It was called Ocali, after the 
principal chief, whose town contained at 
least six hundred dwellings. When De Soto 
arrived, however, these dwellings were all 
found deserted, for the people had seized 
their portable effects and fled with them to 
the forests. But there was much that they 
could not carry away, and for a while the 
Spaniards revelled in an abundance of green 
corn fresh from the stalk, wild fruits, and 
cultivated vegetables. 

Their supplies had been by this time en- 
tirely exhausted, excepting those they had 
taken along "on the hoof" — the three hun- 
dred swine — which, with infinite labor, they 
had saved for the colony that the governor 
still hoped to found in the wilderness. The 
thoughts of the soldiers were fixed on other 
things than colonizing, it is true, and the 
more they saw of Florida the less their de- 
sire to settle there. They would fain have 
turned about and made the best of their way 
114 



BATTLES WITH THE INDIANS 

out of this dreadful peninsula, half water and 
half sand; but the governor's pride forbade 
such a step. Nothing more promising had 
as yet been found than Ocali, which in itself 
was but a miserable village, with no archi- 
tectural pretensions, and without even the 
glamour of gold about it. 

From motives of policy, De Soto endeav- 
ored to establish communication with the 
fugitive chieftain, Ocali, but was unable for 
a long time to draw him out of his retreat in 
the depths of the swamps. At last, one day, 
four young warriors appeared. They were 
nearly naked, but their heads were adorned 
with heron plumes, and in their hands the 
ever - present bows and arrows. Received 
by the governor with great cordiality, they 
sat down to a bountiful collation, of which 
they partook with avidity. Suddenly, with- 
out a word or motion of warning, all four 
rose to their feet and set off so fleetly that 
in a moment they were nearly out of sight. 

Taken completely by surprise, the Span- 
iards would undoubtedly have allowed them 
to escape; but they were pursued and over- 
taken by a blood-hound, which pulled them 
to the ground, one after the other, and then 
stood over them, barking furiously, so that 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

they were absolutely terrified into submis- 
sion. After having been secured by the 
Spaniards and taken to camp, they were 
questioned as to their mysterious behavior, 
but would only admit that they had acted 
without any other intention than to show 
their agility and fleetness of foot. They had 
wonderingly admired the costumes, arms, 
armor, and horses of the strangers, and in 
their artless simplicity had thought to ex- 
hibit some accomplishment of their own. 

The blood-hound that had effected their 
capture was a beast of uncommon sagacity. 
Only a short time before he had torn to 
pieces an Indian who had merely struck a 
Spaniard with his bow. Having done this, 
the Indian had leaped into a river, on the 
bank of which he stood, followed by several 
companions. The hound leaped in after 
them, and, passing by all the others, seized 
the culprit by the shoulder and destroyed 
him before their eyes. 

Not long after the episode first related, as 
De Soto and his body-guard were walking 
along the bank of a wide river near the camp, 
a number of Indians suddenly appeared on 
the opposite bank and discharged a flight 
of arrows into their midst. It chanced that 
ii6 



BATTLES WITH THE INDIANS 

the blood-hound spoken of was a short dis- 
tance behind the company, held in leash by 
a keeper, with whom he struggled so des- 
perately that he finally broke loose. Plung- 
ing into the river, the ferocious brute sought 
to swim across and reach the Indians, who 
greeted his approach with loud yells and a 
volley of arrows. So many of these missiles 
struck him in the head and shoulders that 
he looked, it is said, like a veritable porcu- 
pine; but he valiantly kept on until the 
opposite bank was reached, when he fell 
dead from loss of blood. The savages were 
overjoyed at the destruction of this most 
formidable enemy, and, after a parting vol- 
ley of arrows at the governor and his party, 
dragged its carcass away as a trophy of their 
valor. This event greatly depressed the 
army, for the hound was considered equal 
to a score of sentinels for night duty, being 
always alert when savages were prowling 
about the camp, and able to discover an 
Indian by his sense of smell. 

The cacique Ocali finally emerged from 
his retreat and held a conference with the 
governor; but he was found to be without 
any influence whatever, so was allowed to 
depart, which he did with alacrity, promis- 
9 117 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

ing to return and assist the Spaniards in 
building a bridge across the river. Needless 
to say, perhaps, he did not honor them with 
his presence thereafter, and the bridge was 
built without his aid. The country beyond 
was open pine-woods, through which the 
army passed rapidly, with De Soto, as usual, 
in the lead. After a three-days' march, he 
took with him two hundred horse and foot, 
and, pushing ahead in the night, at daybreak 
entered an Indian town known as Ochile, in 
the province of Vitachuco, which was imder 
the dominion of three brothers. 

De Soto always aimed to get possession of 
the cacique, or chief, of whatever tribe he 
encountered, to hold as a hostage for the 
good behavior of his people. Fearing that 
the cacique of Ochile might take alarm and 
escape, he approached the village by stealth, 
and at dawn clattered into it with clamor of 
trumpet and drum, so alarming the natives 
that they poured forth from their huts like 
bees from a hive. They found themselves 
prisoners, being surrounded by the strange 
warriors, who had descended upon them as 
if from the skies, and offered no resistance. 

The house of the cacique was the largest 
of any mansion yet seen in Florida, being 
ii8 



BATTLES WITH THE INDIANS 

nearly three hundred feet in length by more 
than one hundred in breadth, though con- 
structed of logs and thatched with leaves 
and grass. Within it was the chief, as well 
as his principal warriors, who at first offered 
resistance, but were finally prevailed upon 
to surrender when the Spaniards threatened 
to set fire to the thatch. Received most 
graciously by De Soto, who explained the 
necessity, which he deprecated, for retaining 
him a nominal prisoner, the cacique of Ochile 
was won over at once. He seemed disposed 
to regard his captors as celestial visitors, and 
sent for a younger brother, who, like himself, 
governed a portion of Vitachuco province. 
Between them they controlled one-half the 
province, but the other half was ruled by an 
elder brother, who was made of sterner stuff 
than they, and vastly more sagacious. These 
two kissed the governor's hands, and their 
subjects remained passive, while De Soto 
sent back couriers with orders for the main 
army to come up. They were so friendly 
that the Spaniards greatly rejoiced; for 
hitherto, says the Portuguese chronicler, 
" No one had been able to get servants who 
could make his bread; and the method 
being to beat out the maize in log mortars 
119 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

with a one-handed pestle of wood (some also 
sifting the flour afterwards through their 
shirts of mail), the process was found so 
laborious that man}--, rather than crush the 
grain, chose to eat it parched and sodden." 

From this it will be readily understood 
that the Spaniards gladly accepted the ca- 
cique's offer to supply them with cooks 
and porters, so long as they should remain in 
his country. He became alarmed, however, 
when they settled down around his village 
and in his fields, like a host of devouring 
locusts, and one day he broke loose from his 
guard in an attempt to escape. Some others 
were with him, who hastily formed a sort of 
body-guard, and all together started for the 
woods. Then " the governor ordered a blood- 
hound, already fleshed upon him, to be let 
loose, which, passing by many, seized upon 
the faithless cacique, and held him until the 
Christians came up." 

Convinced that resistance was useless and 
that the Spaniards were invincible, this 
cacique of Ochile united with his younger 
brother in a petition to the eldest and most 
powerful of the three, begging him not to 
resist the advance of the strangers through 
his territory, but to submit as they had done. 

120 



BATTLES WITH THE INDIANS 

This cacique was known as Vitachuco, or 
Uitachuco, his name, as the most powerful 
lord, being also that of the province. At 
first he treated their envoys with silent con- 
tempt, but finally, goaded to wrath by their 
urgency, he retorted (in the language of 
Garcilaso de la Vega) : " It is evident that 
you are young, and have neither judgment 
nor experience, or you would never speak as 
you have done of these hated white men. 
The chains which they have hung upon you, 
and the mean and dastardly spirit which you 
have acquired during the short period you 
have been their slaves, have caused you to 
speak like women. Do you not remember 
that these strangers can be no better than 
those who formerly committed so many 
cruelties in our country? Do not their 
manner of life and actions prove them to be 
children of the Spirit of Evil, and not of the 
sun and the moon, our gods ? 

"Go they not from land to land, plunder- 
ing and destroying, and, like the vagabonds 
they are, maintaining themselves by the 
sweat and blood of others? Warn them, 
then, not to enter my dominions; for I vow 
that, valiant and powerful as they may be, 
if they dare do so they shall never go out 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

alive. Yea, the whole race will I exter- 
minate!" 

This vainglorious message was accepted by 
De Soto as mere bravado ; but, whether the 
cacique could enforce his threats or not, he 
surely meant them, as the sequel proved. 
He pretended, however, to be won over by 
his brothers, who in person went to him and 
entreated his submission. They returned in 
triumph, assuring the governor that their 
brother would receive him as a distinguished 
guest, provision his army, and entertain them 
all to the best of his ability. He was con- 
vinced, they said, that he had misjudged 
their character, and desired to make amends. 
As the most powerful chieftain south of the 
Apalachee country, he felt piqued that the 
Spaniards should not have perceived his 
greatness, and, in order to impress them 
properly, had arranged for a review of his 
army, which was the largest and best-ap- 
pointed in the peninsula. 

Setting out from Ochile in the morning, 
before night the Spaniards arrived at Vita- 
chuco's town, which consisted of more than 
two hundred houses, some of them fortified 
with palisados. The settlement was seated 
in the centre of a vast and fertile prairie, 

122 



BATTLES WITH THE INDIANS 

supposed to be that which is now known as 
Wacahauta, to the west of Micanopy, locally 
famous in the annals of Florida. Five hun- 
dred warriors accompanied Vitachuco when 
he went out to meet De Soto, and the latter 
could not but remark that they were the finest 
he had met, being tall and stalwart, painted, 
plumed, and armed in a superior manner. 

A week of feasting and rejoicing followed, 
during which the Spaniards became con- 
vinced of the cacique's amicable intentions, 
and grew careless. This refers to the rank 
and file; for their commander never relaxed 
his vigilance when in an enemy's coimtry, 
and still insisted upon patrols and sentinels, 
as usual. Neither was he surprised when, 
one evening, Juan Ortiz came to him with 
information of a plot which Vitachuco had 
formed to bring about the destruction of the 
army. Ten thousand warriors were to be 
assembled on the plain, weaponless but in 
battle array, in order that the Spaniards 
might be convinced of the formidable forces 
which the cacique could put in the field when 
occasion demanded. Their weapons, how- 
ever, were to be concealed in the grass and 
thickets, and at a signal they were to close 
in upon the strangers and commence the 
123 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

massacre. Being ten to one, the cacique 
reasoned, they could easily overpower and 
destroy the Spaniards, who would probably 
be wandering about in careless security. 
De Soto was to be taken in hand by the 
cacique himself, who, with twelve of his 
stoutest warriors, was to accompany the 
leader of the Spaniards as he went out to 
view the spectacle. When the signal should 
be given, these warriors were to rush upon 
and overpower the governor, and the ten 
thousand were to grasp their arms and fall 
upon the army, with all the fury of savages 
inspired by confidence in their numbers. 

"It is a very pretty plot," declared De 
Soto, admiringly, at a council of his captains 
that evening. "And, my sons, I think we 
cannot do better than adopt the enemy's 
tactics. I will take with me twelve stout sol- 
diers, to offset the cacique's dozen; and as 
to the rest — why, I never knew my men to 
fail me yet." 

Nor did they fail. On the beautiful morn 
of the morrow, when Cacique Vitachuco 
came to inform his guest that the entertain- 
ment was ready and invite him to view it, 
he was much surprised and taken aback to 
be informed that, in order not to seem remiss, 
124 



BATTLES WITH THE INDIANS 

the Spaniards themselves had decided to 
have a mock battle, for the diversion of their 
Indian allies. 

Though deeply chagrined, the cacique 
dared make no remonstrance, and was com- 
pelled to witness the marshalling of his op- 
ponents in full force and in battle array on 
the opposite side of the plain. 

Civilization and barbarism were fairly 
and squarely opposed. The latter was supe- 
rior in point of numbers, but the former in 
discipline and armament. Between the two 
bodies of soldiers strode the chiefs, accom- 
panied by their body-guards. As they were 
about to ascend the knoll from which the 
sham contests were to be viewed, a war- 
whoop and a bugle -blast rang out at the same 
instant. The attendants of each commander 
were immediately locked in a death-struggle ; 
the warriors sprang to arms; the Spanish 
soldiers came thundering down the plain, 
the cavalry in advance, and shouting the old 
battle-cry, "Santiago!" 

De Soto's war-horse was led up to him by 
a page, and mounting it he placed himself at 
the head of his troops. Four Indian arrows 
pierced the noble beast, and he fell dead in 
his tracks. Another was instantly brought, 
125 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

and, in the saddle again, the gallant leader 
bore down upon the Indians like an ava- 
lanche. Before the onset of those three hun- 
dred chargers encased in armor the naked 
Indians went down like sheep on a moun- 
tain-side before a loosened bowlder. They 
were fierce and valorous; but, though ten 
thousand in number, they could not with- 
stand the cavalry and the arquebuses. 

On one side the plain was a large lake, on 
the other a dense forest, where the Indians 
had concealed their weapons. Such as did 
not reach the forest, in their wild struggle to 
escape, cast themselves into the lake, to the 
number of several hundred. They swam out 
into deep water, and in groups of five or six, 
with the best archer mounted on the backs 
of his companions, kept up the unequal 
struggle all day long. Their arrows, though 
sent with good will, were impotent against 
the mailed soldiers, and when they attempted 
to regain the shore the cavalry would rush 
into the water and drive them back again. 
Daylight waned, and found them fighting 
yet, but by midnight some came in and sur- 
rendered, though the most intrepid remained 
till next day at dawn. 

"At four o'clock in the morning," says an 
126 



BATTLES WITH THE INDIANS 

eye-witness of this affair, " they had all sur- 
rendered, save twelve of the principal men, 
who, as of more distinction and valiant than 
the rest, preferred to die rather than yield. 
Then the Indians of Paracoxi, who were 
going about unshackled, went in after them, 
swimming, and pulled them out by the hair. 
They were all put in chains, and, on the day 
following, were divided among the Christians 
for their service." 

The cacique Vitachuco was caught in his 
own trap. At the beginning of the battle he 
had been overpowered and borne off to the 
Spanish camp, where, after having been put 
in chains, he was allowed unusual liberties. 
He was given a seat at the governor's table, 
and, except for his chains, was treated with 
the deference to which his rank entitled him. 
But he was implacable, and, though De Soto 
did all in his power to gain the friendship 
of his ferocious captive, he was bent upon 
revenge. He concerted another conspiracy, 
and one day, while seated at dinner, gave 
De Soto such a blow in the face that sever- 
al teeth were broken and the blood gushed 
from his nose and mouth. As he sank to the 
floor insensible, the cacique leaped upon and 
was about to finish him, when a dozen 
127 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

swords and lances were thrust through his 
body, and he fell dead. The story of what 
followed, after the signal was thus given for 
the uprising, seems so improbable that we 
prefer the old chronicler should tell it. 

"The Indians all rose together," he says. 
"He who could only catch up a pestle from 
a mortar, as well as he who could grasp a 
weapon, equally exerted himself to kill his 
master or the first one he met ; and he whose 
fortune it was to light upon a lance or a 
sword, handled it in a manner as though he 
had been accustomed to use it all his days. 

"One Indian, in the public yard of the 
town, with blade in hand, fought like a bull 
in the arena, until the halberdiers of the 
governor, arriving, put an end to him. An- 
other got up, with a lance, into a maize-crib, 
made of cane (called by Indians barbacoa), 
and defended the entrance with the uproar of 
ten men, until he was stricken down with a 
battle-axe. They who were subdued may 
have been in all two hundred men. Some of 
the youngest the governor gave to those who 
had good chains ; all the rest were ordered to 
execution, and, being bound to a post in the 
middle of the town yard, they were shot to 
death with arrows by the people of Paracoxi. " 
128 



X 

THE FIERCE APALACHEES 
1539 

SUCH a terrible blow had De Soto re- 
ceived that he lay half an hour un- 
conscious, while the conflict raged around 
him. His face was battered in as though 
it had been struck by a sledge-hammer, and, 
having lost several teeth, he could eat no 
solid food for many a day thereafter. Nearly 
a week passed by before he and his wounded 
comrades were well enough to resume their 
wanderings, when the march was taken up 
for a province known as Osachile. 

The Spaniards left behind them a land 
of desolation, for, besides Vitachuco and his 
chieftains, thirteen hundred warriors had 
been killed in the battles and massacres. 
When the town in which he had resided 
was revisited, some time after, it was found 
abandoned, without an inhabitant, because 
of an Indian superstition that it was ac- 
129 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

cursed. The invaders had good cause to 
remember it, for few of them had escaped 
scatheless in that savage uprising. Several 
had been killed, many there were with bro- 
ken arms, scalded skins, and bruised bodies, 
so that they went limping away, with many 
a malediction on their lips. 

Their first day's march brought them to a 
rapid-flowing river, believed to have been the 
Suwanee, across which they attempted to 
throw a bridge, as it was too deep to ford. 
But the sudden appearance of hostile Ind- 
ians in considerable numbers forced them to 
abandon this undertaking and hastily con- 
struct several rafts, upon which the soldiers 
crossed, while the horses were driven into 
the river and compelled to swim. The in- 
trepid troopers caught their steeds as they 
emerged from the water on the farther bank, 
and, quickly slipping on saddles and bridles, 
charged upon the savages, who were put to 
flight. They soon returned, however, and 
greatly annoyed the Spaniards by dis- 
charges of arrows from the corn fields 
through which they held their course. Many 
were wounded, though none was killed, 
and such of the Indians as were taken 
prisoners had chains placed about their 
130 



THE FIERCE APALACHEES 

necks and were forced to serve as car- 
riers. 

Nearly all the slaves and porters had been 
slain in the massacre, when the exasperated 
Spaniards had wreaked their vengeance upon 
all alike. These new prisoners were as in- 
tractable as the others, and though they 
were " led off in chains, with collars about the 
neck," they sometimes managed to escape. 
"Sometimes it happened," says the old 
chronicler, " that, going with them for wood 
or maize, they would kill the Christian and 
flee, with the chain on, which others would 
file at night with a splinter of stone in the 
place of iron ; at which work, when they were 
caught, they were punished, as a warning to 
others. The women and youths, when re- 
moved a hundred leagues from their country, 
no longer cared, and were taken along loose, 
doing the work, and in a very little time 
learning the Spanish language." 

The town of Osachile, which was less than 
fifty miles from the last they had left, the 
Spaniards found to consist of about two hun- 
dred houses, and to occupy the centre of a 
fertile prairie covered with fields of maize and 
pumpkins. Most authorities agree that Osa- 
chile may have occupied the site of the pres- 
131 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

ent Suwanee Old Town, and the name is 
perhaps perpetuated by that of the river 
Oscilla. It was found deserted, all the in- 
habitants having fled, taking with them their 
portable possessions; but this fact did not 
disturb the Spaniards, who thus secured 
shelters already constructed and fields well 
tilled, which they could avail of without any 
fighting. Here in Osachile, as at Tampa, 
the cacique's house was set upon an artificial 
mound, the summit of which was large enough 
to accommodate a group of twenty wigwams, 
and was reached by an inclined roadway 
twenty feet in width. It was pyramidal in 
shape, and, though wholly of earth, much 
resembled the stone structures of Mexico, 
such as Papantla, in the province of Vera 
Cruz. 

Though the governor would have been glad 
to have a short respite, as his wounds were 
healing but slowly, he did not tarry long at 
Osachile, for ahead of him lay the wonder- 
ful country of Apalachee, which was said to 
abound in gold. It was also the home (ac- 
cording to the southern Indians) of the 
fiercest warriors in Florida, who had never 
been defeated in battle, and who never allow- 
ed their land to be invaded. An Apalachee 
132 



THE FIERCE APALACHEES 

scout had been captured, after holding at 
bay a score of soldiers for hours. Severely 
wounded as he was, and in chains, he was 
brought before the governor. 

"Whence am I?" he said, proudly, holding 
his head erect and looking De Soto straight 
in the eye. " I am from Apalachee. What 
you get there, you will see ! Our warriors will 
pin ye to the ground with their lances; they 
will hack ye in pieces with their swords, and 
consume ye with fire! Wait ye and see!" 

Far from being deterred by these men- 
aces, De Soto was moved to try conclu- 
sions with the savage Apalachees. He had 
decided to establish his winter quarters in 
their province, come what might, and the 
order was given to march. Three days of 
sweltering toil succeeded, in the traversing 
of an arid plain, and on the fourth the 
Spaniards entered the most dismal morass of 
any they had seen. It was a vast swamp, in 
the midst of a gloomy forest, through the 
tangled undergrowth of which there was a 
single narrow trail, only wide enough for 
them to march in Indian file. In the centre 
of this forest swamp was a lake of unknown 
extent, black and forbidding, swarming with 
snakes and alligators. Beyond the lake lay 
133 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

the land of promise, Apalachee (the Indians 
told De Soto) , and that was sufficient for him 
to essay its passage. 

Making camp on the skirts of the forest, he 
detailed a hundred cross-bow-men and hal- 
berdiers, together with twelve men who 
could swim, to penetrate the swamp and 
force a passage through the lake. They were 
driven back, before they had gone a hundred 
paces, by Indians concealed in the thickets, 
who assailed them with javelins, arrows, and 
lances, and compelled them to retreat. Re- 
ceiving heavy reinforcements from the main 
army, they returned to the attack, but suc- 
ceeded only in ascertaining that the water of 
the lake was too deep to be forded, and that 
beyond it extended the same black forest, 
through which the narrow trail wound like a 
snake for several miles. 

No obstacle was ever encountered by De 
Soto which he deemed insurmoimtable. He 
was never daunted by circumstances the 
most adverse, nor discouraged by ill-fortime. 
He resolved to make a night march through 
the swamp of the dismal lake, and, sending 
on ahead two hundred chosen soldiers, who 
were encased in armor from head to foot, he 
fell in behind with the bulk of the army. 
134 



THE FIERCE APALACHEES 

He formed a living wedge, as it were, faced 
with steel, and drove it home by ponderous 
blows. Entering the forest defile between 
midnight and dawn, the advance-guard suc- 
ceeded in reaching and crossing the lake be- 
fore the Indians were aroused. They had 
not expected a night attack, and had left 
the lake un watched. Darkness enshrouded 
these brave cavaliers as they passed, in single 
file, between the trunks of ghostly cypress- 
trees, hung with funereal banners of moss and 
draped in vines that depended from their 
limbs like writhing serpents. Cautiously 
they felt their way, parting the vines with 
their swords and prodding the leaves with 
their lances. In the centre of the black lake 
water was a primitive bridge, formed of 
fallen trees and logs. They crawled across 
it like panthers, their stout hearts beating 
wildly, for here they had fully expected re- 
sistance. But they had safely passed the 
waterway, and were already assembling on 
the farther side of the lake, when the savages 
discovered them. 

Daylight revealed them to the astonished 

Indians, who greeted the sight with yells and 

wolf-like howls. Like wolves, too, they fell 

upon these mailed monsters who had in- 

135 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

vaded their land, and dashed themselves to 
pieces against their armor-clad bodies. As 
well might the waves of ocean dash against 
a rock, for the Spaniards were impelding. 
Some of them went down, for they were 
fighting waist-deep in the water, and never 
rose again; but their foes went with them. 

They could not retreat, because of the 
pressure from behind. Arrows glanced from 
their armor, lances from their helmets, but 
now and again a ponderous battle - axe de- 
scended and crushed out all life within. Still, 
inch by inch and foot by foot the valorous 
Spaniards advanced, meeting lances with 
sword -thrusts, arrows ^^-ith cross-bows and 
arquebuses; and thus the living wedge was 
driven home. Naked bodies were not proof 
against keen Toledo blades — they could not 
resist the impact of men in armor; and 
when, finally, the cavalry came into action, 
the s:ivages went down like fields of grain 
before the hurricane. But Apalachee nat- 
ure could not understand defeat, would not 
think of surrender, and the savage warriors 
continued to contest the pass two days and 
a night, until their foes were weary \\*ith 
fighting and almost dead from loss of sleep. 

These Indians had fought the aniiv of 
136 



THE FIERCE APALACHEES 

Narvaez, and bad defeated him, so they had 
a contempt for cross-bows and arquebuses. 
As for the horses — they impeded their ad- 
vance by fallen trees, bound together with 
vines, and, when the horsemen were en- 
tangled, would creep up and slash at them 
from beneath, bringing steed and rider to 
the ground, where they were slaughtered. 
But the cavalry had their revenge when the 
open plains were reached. Then the horses 
themselves seemed to share their riders' rage 
and fury, and the Indians were cut down 
without mercy. No quarter w^as given nor 
asked, for the Spaniards had taken their 
lives in their hands, and the Apalachees gave 
theirs gladly in defence of their country. 

After marching and fighting during several 
days, all the time in the midst of seemingly 
interminable fields of maize, where, beneath 
the rustling pennons, gleamed golden pump- 
kins innumerable, the weary Spaniards ar- 
rived at a dark and rapid stream coursing 
through a forest. Though it might have 
been easily forded had they been unopposed, 
they found their passage obstructed by a 
barrier of palisados, behind which the Ind- 
ians had gathered in great force. Night was 
coming, and there was no time to parley, 
137 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

even if the governor had been in the mood, 
so he ordered a troop of dismounted horse- 
men, who were the best protected by their 
armor, to storm the barricade. With shields 
in front and swords and hatchets in hand, 
they dashed into the river, amid a storm of 
javelins and arrows. The Indians met them 
unflinchingly and killed several of their num- 
ber, wounding many others; but the bar- 
rier was carried, and the troops poured tu- 
multuously across the stream, putting to 
the sword such laggards in flight as they 
could overtake. A camp was established 
two leagues beyond the forest, in a fertile 
country similar to that which they had 
recently passed through, and here De Soto 
hoped to rest awhile and recuperate. 

But, though the level fields presented a 
clear course for the cavalry, with no hiding- 
places save the stacks of maize, the wary and 
ferocious savages kept the camp in a constant 
state of alarm. The sentinels were shot 
down at their posts, patrols were attacked 
while going their rounds, and soldiers off 
duty were unable to sleep on account of the 
yells and howls that went up on every side. 
Flights of arrows, too, fell in the very centre 
of the camp and wounded several Spaniards 
138 



THE FIERCE APALACHEES 

while they were endeavoring to prevent a 
stampede of their horses. 

In distress and gloom, exposed to inces- 
sant assaults by the restless and determined 
enemy, the soldiers passed the fourth night 
since they had emerged from the swamp, 
after patiently enduring and sturdily resist- 
ing for nearly one hundred hours, all the 
time with weapons in their hands. Such 
captives as they had taken boasted loudly 
of their cacique's prowess, and assured the 
Spaniards that the reception they had given 
them was nothing to what they would get 
should they approach his capital. 

Apalachee had been vaunted by the 
Indians all the way from Ocali; yet when 
entered it was found to contain no monu- 
ment to human greatness, past or present. 
It consisted of about two hundred straw 
huts, without doors or windows, and with 
wattled walls plastered over with mud. Had 
De Soto been an ordinary man, his spirits 
would have sunk within him; but, as has 
been said before, he was not an ordinary 
man. He was heroic in his sublime faith, 
but grotesquely so in his blind persistence 
in following a path which led him nowhere 
and pursuing a course which became the 
139 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

more involved in difficulties the farther he 
went. 

Following his usual practice, he endeav- 
ored to get the cacique, Capafi, in his power, 
at first by sending him valuable presents ac- 
companied by proffers of his friendship, then 
by despatching scouting - parties to capture 
him in his stronghold. This retreat was es- 
tablished in the centre of a dense forest, 
swamp - surrounded and fortified at every 
point of approach. It was hunted out and 
assaulted by De Soto himself, at the head of 
a band of horsemen chosen for their courage 
and endurance. At the end of a long, nar- 
row, and winding trail, the governor found 
himself confronted with a barricade made of 
palisados bound together with osiers. This 
was stormed and carried; but within it was 
another, still stronger, and defended by sav- 
ages fighting with the desperation of despair. 
A hand-to-hand conflict ensued, which end- 
ed only with the death of nearly all the 
defenders. 

When, at last, the cacique was discovered, 
squat like a toad in the farthest corner of the 
inmost hut, it was seen that he was too fat 
to walk. He could only crawl on his hands 
and knees; but he was evidently greatly 
140 



THE FIERCE APALACHEES 

beloved by his surviving subjects, who bore 
him in their arms to De Soto, by whom he 
was kindly received and promised good treat- 
ment so long as he should keep the peace. 



XI 

THE FIRST WINTER IN FLORIDA 
1539-1540 

RETURNING with his captive to An- 
hayca, the Apalachee capital, the gov- 
ernor made preparations, the last week in 
October, 1539, for settling down there for 
the winter; but not to a life of inaction. 
While he had been in pursuit of Capafi, two 
of his captains, Tinoco and Vasconceles, 
were scouring the country for gold and sup- 
plies, and shortly after his return another, 
Juan de Afiasco, was sent southward on a 
most important mission. This was to dis- 
cover, if possible, a route to the sea, which, 
the Indians told De Soto, was not many 
leagues away. 

Taking with him ninety horse and foot, 
Ailasco, who was the contador, or auditor, of 
the expedition, and a man who could be 
trusted implicitly, started on his perilous 
trip to the sea -coast. It must be remem- 
142 



THE FIRST WINTER IN FLORIDA 

bered that De Soto had no maps or charts 
upon which he could rely for guidance, and 
depended entirely upon information given 
him by the Indians, who were not always 
understood by the interpreter. On this oc- 
casion it happened that the governor had 
been correctly informed, and Afiasco found 
the object of his search, though only after 
enduring great privations. 

He took along as guide an Apalachee 
prisoner, who was soon accused of treachery, 
because he attempted (the soldiers said) to 
lose them in a vast morass. Several times 
he brought them within sound of the sea 
waves on a distant shore, and then started in 
a different direction, which invariably led 
into the wilderness. At last their suspicions 
became so strong that an iron collar was put 
on his neck, to which was attached a chain, 
held by a soldier, who was charged to keep 
strict watch, lest he should escape. 

One night, as his enemies were asleep, he 
snatched a glowing brand from the camp- 
fire and beat the soldier with it over the 
head, at the same time trampling upon him 
as he lay helpless on the ground. This so 
exasperated Captain Afiasco, who was al- 
ready greatly incensed, that he thrust the 
143 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

recreant guide through with a lance, then 
loosed his hound, who quickly tore him to 
pieces. The Spaniards thus gratified their 
desire for revenge; but they had deprived 
themselves of the only man who knew the 
way out of the wilderness, and for fifteen 
days they wandered aimlessly about, finally 
reaching the coast nearly exhausted and on 
the verge of starvation. 

Here they found, not only abundant sup- 
plies of fish, but a large and excellent bay, 
and came upon gruesome relics of the ill- 
starred expedition of Narvaez. That this 
bay was the one from which the remnants of 
his command had set sail was shown by the 
stumps of trees which had been felled for the 
construction of the brigantines, a forge for 
the making of bolts and nails, and finally 
by the skulls of horses which had been 
killed. 

This bay was undoubtedly that of the 
present St. Marks, and is distant but a few 
leagues, in a direct line southward, from 
Anhayca, which was probably on or near the 
site of Tallahassee. It was called Aut6 by 
the natives, who had picked up a few Spanish 
words from the former visitors, and who con- 
ducted Afiasco and his men to scenes identi- 
144 



THE FIRST WINTER IN FLORIDA 

fied with its discovery. With this valuable 
information, after going out in a canoe and 
sounding the harbor, Anasco returned to 
Anhayca, whence he was soon despatched by 
De Soto to Tampa, with orders for Captain 
Calderon to abandon his encampment there 
and join him in Apalachee, 

The intrepid Anasco, in command of 
thirty lancers, like himself men of valor and 
endurance, set out on November 20th for 
Tampa, or Espiritu Santo, which he reached 
at the end of ten days. As De Soto did not 
take part in this desperate dash through 
a country swarming with Indians already 
roused to fury by the outrages committed 
upon them by the Spaniards, we feel con- 
strained to omit it from our narrative. But 
it was one of the most venturesome episodes 
of the expedition, and replete with exciting 
incident. Anasco took Calderon orders to 
proceed northward by land, while he himself 
was to sail along the coast to the harbor of 
Aute, and march thence to Apalachee. To 
a worthy companion of his, Gomez Arias, was 
given the enviable commission of bearing to 
Dona Isabel tidings from her liege lord in 
Apalachee, and he soon set sail with two 
caravels for Havana, carrying with him 
I4S 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

twenty Indian women and some pearls of 
the country as presents. 

The garrison at Tampa had planted gar- 
dens, which were fruitful and flourishing at 
the time Anasco returned, and they were 
loath to leave them, especially when they 
learned that no gold had been discovered. 
This was their first demand: "Have you 
found any gold ?" The welfare of their com- 
mander and comrades seemed to concern 
them no whit; but in refreshing contrast to 
their indifference was the lively interest of the 
good cacique, Mocoso, who inquired earnest- 
ly after his friends in distant Apalachee. 

It is a pleasure to record that he was 
richly rewarded for his loyalty to the Span- 
iards, for to him and his people they gave 
all their surplus stores, helmets, armor, 
lances, pikes, etc., of which a mountain-heap 
remained after the retiring soldiers had 
taken all they could carry. It took Mo- 
coso 's people nearly a week to remove these 
articles to their town, though every man, 
woman, and child was impressed into service ; 
and thereafter they were living examples of 
Spanish beneficiaries. 

What became of all these things, especially 
of such as were in their nature imperishable, 
146 



THE FIRST WINTER IN FLORIDA 

like the helmets and the armor, no one in 
recent times has been able to discover. It 
would seem likely that some relics of this 
expedition, which wound its way through 
the forests and over the prairies for years, 
scattering hundreds of objects in iron and 
steel along its route, might be found; but 
few, if any, have been recovered. Mocoso 
and his subjects have disappeared, along 
with the objects with which the Spaniards 
enriched them, and so, also, have all the 
tribes encountered, except a few in the 
northern region traversed by De Soto. 

Gomez Arias sailed southward with two 
caravels, and safely reached Havana, with 
news which cheered the heart of Dona 
Isabel and at the same time saddened it. 
While the message from De Soto was affec- 
tionate, nevertheless it conveyed to her his 
stern resolve never to return without ac- 
complishing the objects sought. Thus far 
there had been no indications either of a 
golden region or an extensive empire (as he 
frankly stated), but he should still persist 
in his search for both. His sorrowing con- 
sort knew him well enough to be convinced 
that, if neither existed, she might never 
see him again, for his proud nature would 
147 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

not permit him to return to Cuba impov- 
erished. 

She had already divined the situation, it 
is said, and had sent a letter to Tampa, 
which Captain Calderon bore to his com- 
mander, begging him to abandon the enter- 
prise and resume his captain - generalcy in 
Cuba, which was an island already ripe for 
development. After entering a plea for the 
Indians of Florida, she continues: "I hope, 
my dearest husband, that no considerations 
of worldly advantage will make you neglect- 
ful of the precepts of humanity and of the 
duties of religion. Be persuaded to return 
to me at once, for you can gain nothing in 
Florida which can compensate me for the 
sorrow and anxiety I feel in your absence. 
... If you have gained nothing, I shall be 
better satisfied, because there may be the 
less cause for repentance. Whatever may 
have been your want of success or your 
losses, I implore you to come to me without 
delay ; for any reverse of fortune is far better 
than the suspense and misery I now endure." 

It would seem that the daughter of Pedra- 

rias was paying the penalty of her father's 

sins, for surely few women have had to 

suffer more mental anguish than she en- 

148 



THE FIRST WINTER IN FLORIDA 

dured during those long months of waiting, 
which stretched into still longer years that 
finally ebbed away into eternity. She was 
never to see her lover and husband again, 
yet she remained hopeful and faithful, send- 
ing several missions in search of him, all of 
which were fruitless in their quest. 

While Juan de Aiiasco sailed northward, 
taking with him in the brigantines his thirty 
lancers, sturdy Pedro Calderon, with one 
hundred and twenty horse and foot, made 
his way to Apalachee by land. He had 
hterally to carve a path anew through the 
forests and swamps, for, though thrice open- 
ed, it had closed behind the previous cava- 
liers, like the waves parted by a vessel's keel. 
Almost every mile of his route was contested 
by the enemy, and he arrived at Apalachee, 
the last of December, with his little force 
reduced by many killed and wounded. 

Afiasco arrived shortly before Captain 
Calderon, and De Soto received them both 
with rejoicings. The original band of ad- 
venturers was now reunited, and, as the 
soldiers looked upon their governor with 
feelings akin to reverence, there was no dis- 
sension in camp, but all dwelled together as 
brothers. The interior of Florida had been 
II 149 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

opened up by the various marches through 
it, and the west coast had been explored as 
far north as St. Marks. Westward from 
this bay both the coast and interior country 
were still unknown, and De Soto sent Diego 
Maldonado, in the brigantines Anasco had 
brought, with a company of soldiers and 
sailors, to investigate. He sailed away west- 
ward, and about seventy leagues from Aute 
found what his commander wanted — a mag- 
nificent harbor large enough for world-com- 
merce and advantageously situated, with 
its splendid country adjacent, for a colony. 
The fleets of all Europe might safely ride 
at anchor there, Maldonado reported to De 
Soto, and, moreover, it was land-locked, with 
shores so "steep-to" that vessels might sail 
right up to the bluffs. 

This information rejoiced the governor 
exceedingly, and he took energetic measures, 
by despatching Maldonado to Havana for a 
fleet well freighted with supplies, towards 
making this bay of Ochuse, as the natives 
called it, a nucleus for the great empire 
which he hoped to create in Florida. This 
fine harbor is known to-day as Pensacola, 
and is worthy of all the encomiums that the 
early navigators lavished upon it. Instruct- 
150 



THE FIRST WINTER IN FLORIDA 

ing Maldonado to sail for Havana with all 
speed and rendezvous at Ochuse the follow- 
ing October, De Soto, with tireless energy, 
made preparations for an extended explora- 
tion of the interior country, intending to 
meet his lieutenant at the time appointed. 
He had kept the road to Aute open by 
marching and countermarching over it sev- 
eral companies of horsemen, so the various 
operations were conducted and communica- 
tion was maintained between the port and 
Apalachee without any considerable losses 
by the Spaniards. Yet they were continual- 
ly in warfare with the savages, who assailed 
them by night and by day, attacking not 
only their outposts, but the headquarters as 
well, with all the fury of their first assaults. 

These Apalachees, in fact, were uncon- 
querable, and, even though their capital 
was in the hands of the enemy, they never 
ceased their efforts until the Spaniards had 
departed from their province. De Soto had 
thought to restrain them somewhat by keep- 
ing their chief, the fat cacique, in custody; 
but this individual was as crafty as he was 
skilled in warfare, and one day he effected 
his escape by playing upon the credulity 
of his captors. His warriors continued to 
151 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

molest the Spaniards at every opportunity; 
and when the governor remonstrated, telHng 
him that he thought it very ungrateful in his 
subjects to do so, when their chief was receiv- 
ing from him every kindness and attention, 
he agreed and expressed great grief at their 
conduct. 

"But," he said, "they do not know that I 
am well treated. They think of me as im- 
prisoned in a dungeon and with fetters on 
my limbs. Let me but show myself to them 
unfettered, and doubtless they will cease 
their ravages at once." 

De Soto agreed that this seemed rea- 
sonable, and asked him how he should 
proceed. 

" My chief men are encamped in a forest, 
five or six leagues from here," answered the 
cacique. " Send me to them, guarded by a 
small company of soldiers, and I will soon 
bring them to terms. But do not put irons 
upon me, for that would enrage them." 

As the obese cacique could not walk with- 
out assistance, much less run away, the 
governor assented to this proposition, and, 
closely guarded by a company of picked sol- 
diers, he was sent to interview his warriors. 
Setting out at daylight one morning, they 
152 



THE FIRST WINTER IN FLORIDA 

marched till near sunset, when the forest was 
reached in which the warriors were said to 
be concealed. The soldiers were weary from 
their march, and, though they took every 
precaution, by posting sentinels and sur- 
rounding the cacique with a very strong 
guard, they all fell asleep in the night. 

Their prisoner was not weary, as he had 
been carried all the way, and he was very 
wide-awake, for, watching his opportunity, 
about midnight he crawled off into the 
thickets on his hands and knees; and that 
was the last the Spaniards ever saw of the 
fat cacique. 

When his absence became known, next 
morning, the sentinels swore, by all the saints 
they could remember and name, that they 
had not slept a wink, so it was agreed among 
the company that the fat cacique must have 
been a necromancer, and, by conjuring a 
demon to his aid, had got himself spirited 
away. At least, this was the story they told 
the governor on their return, and he, wise 
and forbearing man that he was, said in 
reply (though with something approaching a 
twinkle in his eyes) : " It is very possible, my 
sons, for I really believe these Indians are 
capable of more wonderful feats than merely 
153 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

conjuring off a fat cacique. Still, would I 
had been there to behold the feat!" 

Relieved of anxiety respecting their chief, 
the Apalachee warriors redoubled their ef- 
forts to drive the invaders away. When- 
ever the Spaniards went to the forest for 
wood or to the streams for water, they were 
quickly surrounded by hosts of savages, who 
massacred and scalped the white men and 
broke the chains of their slaves, whom they 
took with them to their haunts. Though 
some few were captured, most of the Apala- 
chees encountered fought to the death, and 
they were so regardless of pain that, says the 
Portuguese chronicler, "if their hands and 
noses were cut off, they made no more ac- 
count of it than if each of them had been a 
Mucius Scaevola of Rome. Not one of them, 
for fear of death, would deny that he be- 
longed to Apalachee." 

Two young cavaliers, Diego de Soto, a 
nephew of the governor, and Diego Velas- 
quez, were making their rounds one day, 
when they espied an Indian stealing across 
a field surrounded by a forest. 

"At him!" shouted Diego de Soto, rising 
in his stirrups and shaking his lance. Find- 
ing himself unable to regain the forest, the 
154 



THE FIRST WINTER IN FLORIDA 

Indian placed his back against an isolated 
tree in the cornfield, fixed an arrow in his 
bow, and calmly awaited his enemy. As he 
pranced up to the tree, Diego de Soto made 
a pass at the Indian with his lance, which 
the latter dodged, and then let loose an 
arrow. It struck the horse in a vital spot, 
and he fell dead in less than twenty paces. 

Then Diego Valasquez took a hand in the 
affray, but met with no better luck than his 
companion. He missed the savage with his 
lance, and an arrow was buried in the body 
of his horse, just back of the saddle-girth, 
and the noble beast stumbled headlong to 
his death. Enraged beyond expression at 
the loss of their gallant steeds, the two 
cavaliers sprang for the Indian with their 
lances; but he was more than their equal 
afoot, and fled to the forest, keeping just 
beyond reach of their weapons and jeering 
them all the way. 

The two Diegos walked ruefully back to 
camp, where they had to endure the gibes 
of their comrades also. But they were far 
more fortunate than two other horsemen, 
Simon Rodriguez and Roque de Yelves, 
who rode out one afternoon to gather wild 
grapes at the edge of the forest. Leaving 
155 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

their horses at the foot of a tree, they cHmbed 
up into the branches, where the vines were 
thick with fruit. 

Some savages discovered them there, and 
shot them with barbed arrows. As they fell 
to the ground, their horses broke loose and 
fled wildly to the camp, pursued by bow- 
shots from the Indians. One of them had 
a few drops of blood on his thigh, but noth- 
ing was thought of it at the time. Next 
morning he was dead, and when opened an 
arrow was found in his entrails, which had 
entered his thigh at the spot where the drops 
of blood were seen. 



XII 

THE TRACKLESS WILDERNESS 
1540 

THE scenery of Apalachee province was 
varied and beautiful, and its agricult- 
ural resources so great that the Spaniards 
had subsisted for five months upon the coun- 
try in their immediate vicinity without for- 
aging more than five miles from their camp. 
But of gold, the real object of their quest, 
they had found no trace. There was none in 
the country, though in a province which lay 
to the north and east, some Indians told De 
Soto, there was "great store" of the precious 
metal. 

The easy credulity of the Spaniards and 
the eagerness with which they seized upon 
any chance bit of gossip relating to gold, we 
find quaintly set forth in the narrative of the 
Portuguese member of their company styled 
the "Fidalgo." "Of the Indians taken in 
Napetuca," he states, "the treasurer, Juan 
157 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

de Gay tan, brought a youth with him who 
said that he did not belong to that country, 
but to one afar, in the direction of the sun's 
rising, from which he had been a long time 
absent, visiting other lands. That its name 
was Yupaha, and was governed by a woman, 
the town she lived in being of astonishing 
size, and many neighboring lords her trib- 
utaries, some of whom gave her clothing, 
others gold in quantity. 

" He showed how the metal was taken 
from the earth, melted, and refined, exactly 
as though he had seen it all done ; or else the 
devil had taught him how it was; and they 
who knew aught of such matters declared it 
impossible that he could give that account 
without having been an eye-witness, and 
they who beheld the signs he made credited 
all that was understood as certain." 

This valuable information was conveyed 
entirely by signs, for the interpreter, Juan 
Ortiz, did not understand the speech of this 
youth who had come from the land of the 
sunrise; but, on the strength of this vague 
assurance of gold existing somewhere beyond 
the wilderness, the governor issued orders 
for the expedition to march. Refreshed by 
the long stay in a land of plenty, with most 
158 



THE TRACKLESS WILDERNESS 

of the soldiers in fine fettle, and the horses in 
good condition, the army was once more set 
in motion, and another chapter was opened 
in that book of horrors with its letters writ- 
ten in blood. 

That the winter had not passed without 
other tragedies than those we have recorded 
is shown by a casual remark of the narrator 
already referred to, who says: "The governor 
ordered his men to go provided with maize 
for a march through sixty leagues of desert. 
The cavalry carried their grain on the horses, 
and the infantry theirs on the back ; because 
the Indians they brought with them for ser- 
vice, being naked and in chains, had perished, 
in great part, during the winter." 

After a short stay at a place called Capa- 
chiqui, the march was resumed, with De Soto 
in the advance, at the head of his horsemen. 
He was anxious to reach the golden coun- 
try, and, impatient with the plodding foot- 
soldiers, laden as they were with packs of 
provisions, in addition to their heavy weap- 
ons and armor, he dashed off in the direc- 
tion of the wilderness. In the province of 
Atapaha, the name of which is still borne by 
a river of that region, he found a town, 
called by some Toalli, and by others Achese, 
159 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

which was the best-built of any he had seen. 
The huts, or houses, had their walls plastered 
with clay, while the roofs were covered with 
cane, "after the fashion of tile." Every 
Indian of prominence, he found, had a hut 
for summer-time, as well as for winter, and 
the latter was plastered inside and out. It 
had a very small door, which was closed at 
night in cold weather, and when a fire was 
started the room became so warm that the 
inmates slept without any clothing. 

As to the costumes of these people: while 
the women wore finely dressed deerskins and 
shawls made of grass, the men considered 
themselves in "full dress" with a breech- 
cloth and a blanket, the latter cast over the 
shoulder, "after the manner of the gypsies." 
The warriors were an independent band of 
braves, who at once demanded of De Soto 
whence he came, why he came, and what he 
wanted. He replied that he came in peace, 
that his object was to convert them to his 
religion, and that he sought for gold. 

" He told the cacique that he was going 
about the country seeking for the greatest 
prince there and the richest province." The 
cacique rejoined that he was the greatest 
prince, but that the richest province lay far 
1 60 



THE TRACKLESS WILDERNESS 

to the northward and eastward. Still, he 
had an abundance of supplies, such as wild 
turkeys, partridges, conies, and native dogs, 
which he gave the Spaniards on request. 

The dogs were especially appreciated, 
their meat being tender and finely flavored. 
Though the Spaniards had thus far been able 
to subsist on such vegetable food as they 
could forage in the Indian fields, they were 
famishing for meat. "On this account, the 
dogs were as much esteemed by the Chris- 
tians as though they had been fat sheep," 
and many an invalid soldier, when sinking 
from debihty, would say, " Now, if I had but 
a slice of meat, or only a few lumps of salt, I 
should not thus die!" 

The Indians never lacked for meat in this 
country so plentifully supplied with wild 
game, as they were very skilful in shooting 
and snaring it; while the soldiers not only 
were unskilled, but dared not, when in the 
forests, stray from the line of march. " Such 
was the craving for meat," says one of them, 
"that when the six hundred men who fol- 
lowed Soto arrived at a town, and found 
there twenty or thirty dogs, he who could get 
sight of one and kill it thought he had done 
no little ; and he who proved himself so ac- 
i6i 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

tive, if his captain knew of it, and he for- 
got to send him a quarter, would show his 
displeasure and make him feel it in the night 
watches." 

Besides provisions, the cacique gave De 
Soto the services of four hundred carriers, 
who were to carry his luggage into the ad- 
joining province, the ruler of which was one 
Patofa, a mighty man of war. Before De 
Soto parted from his hospitable friend, he 
made him a present of the one piece of 
ordnance, probably a falconet, that he had 
thus far brought with him from Espiritu 
Santo. It had been hauled all the way, by 
gteat exertions, and, so far as the records 
show, had never been fired in battle. As 
even the arquebuses were too slow of fire, 
and cumbersome, when opposed to the 
Indian archers (who could send from their 
bows at least a dozen arrows to one dis- 
charge of the fire-arm), the cannon had been 
found of little use. So the governor gave it 
to the cacique, who was filled with delight, 
and when it was fired, shattering an oak- 
tree with its heavy ball, he was overwhelmed 
with amazement and terror. 

It is doubtful if that cannon was ever dis- 
charged again, as the Indians had no powder, 
162 



THE TRACKLESS WILDERNESS 

and knew not how to load and fire it if they 
had. Nor, so far as we can tell, was it seen 
again by civilized man, after the soldiers of 
De Soto filed through the forest trails on 
their way to the next province. As the gift 
of his white friend, the "Son of the Sun," it 
was carefully guarded by the cacique, and, as 
a potent engine of destruction possessed of 
mysterious powers, it may have been sacred- 
ly cherished, even revered as a god, by those 
pagans of the Floridian forests. 

From Atapaha, where De Soto had been so 
generously entertained, he passed to the 
province of Cofaqui, the cacique of which, 
already informed of his coming, met him on 
the frontier, with a retinue of richly costumed 
warriors. He desired to detain the Span- 
iards in his territory, but De Soto was intent 
upon seeing with his own eyes the province 
of Cofachiqui, in which were the mines of 
gold, and where lived the fair cacica, or 
female cacique. He would not tarry, there- 
fore, longer than was necessary to rest his 
men and prepare for the crossing of the in- 
tervening desert, which was reported to be 
a seven days' journey in extent. As few 
living things existed there by which life 
might be sustained on the way, all supplies 
163 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

must be carried along, and the cacique or- 
dered his subjects to gather vast quantities 
of walnuts, acorns, dried plums, and grapes. 
These Indians had no dogs, and were not so 
expert at snaring game as their neighbors, so 
the Spaniards looked forward, perforce, to 
a vegetarian diet, at which they grumbled 
greatly. 

Four thousand warriors were quickly as- 
sembled by Cacique Patofa, and four thou- 
sand carriers to transport the supplies. 
When De Soto expressed surprise at the 
gathering of such a host, and intimated that 
the warriors, at least, might be left behind to 
advantage, the cacique replied that a perpet- 
ual enmity had existed between his tribe and 
the Cofachiquis, and as they were stronger 
than his people, he was going to avail himself 
of the protection afforded by the Spaniards 
to wreak vengeance on his enemies. 

This frank admission somewhat perplexed 
the governor, whose general policy was to 
conciliate the natives rather than incense 
them, and he especially desired to cultivate 
the friendship of the Cofachiquis, in whose 
keeping was the treasure he had been seek- 
ing so long. But Cacique Patofa was a living 
presence, while Cofachiqui was a far country, 
164 



THE TRACKLESS WILDERNESS 

which he could only reach, if at all, by the as- 
sistance of his savage friend. So he remained 
silent, though revolving in his mind how he 
should rid himself of such troublesome allies 
when they were no longer necessary. 

He was not long left in doubt as to the 
actual intentions of Patofa, who, in order to 
impress his white friend with his prowess, 
threw aside his rich mantle of marten skin, 
which served him as a royal toga, and, seizing 
a great wooden broadsword, cut and thrust 
with it at an imaginary enemy, and so skil- 
fully as to elicit De Soto's admiration. Ad- 
dressing his warriors and the assembled 
Spaniards, he then said, "I have pledged 
my word that, with the assistance of these 
strangers, now our friends, I will avenge 
the insults, the deaths, and the losses our fa- 
thers have sustained from the Cofachiquis. 
And my vengeance shall be such that the 
memory of past defeats shall be wiped away 
forever." 

Believing it best to dissemble his real feel- 
ings, De Soto made no reply to the cacique's 
boastful speech, but gave him a cap of yellow 
satin, a shirt, and a silver plume, at the same 
time directing him to reverence the cross, 
which he had set up on a mound in the 
" 165 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

village, and make his devotions before it. 
This the cacique promised to do, and, holding 
the ornament aloft, he said, "You are from 
heaven, and this plume of yours, which you 
have given me: I can eat with it, I shall sleep 
with it, and I shall go to war with it!" 

"That is so," replied the governor, "you 
can do all that." Then the two embraced, 
and all present repaired to tables set beneath 
the trees, where they feasted and made 
merry; the Spaniards in their shining armor 
and the savages in their breech-clouts and 
blankets of deerskin. 

They were to start on the following morn- 
ing, but were delayed somewhat by an un- 
toward event — namely, the strange conduct 
of their guide, a young lad named Perico, 
whom they had brought from Apalachee. 
He was to lead them to Cofachiqui, but, 
perhaps repenting of his promise, suddenly 
went mad, frothing at the mouth, and rav- 
ing like a maniac. 

He had chosen the hour of midnight for 
his outbreak, and, fearing the treachery of 
their host, whose warriors outnumbered them 
ten to one, the soldiery were in a panic. " To 
arms! To arms!" sounded the trumpets. 
Helmets and breastplates were donned in 
i66 



THE TRACKLESS WILDERNESS 

haste, and weapons seized, the first that 
came to hand. 

When Perico's hut was entered, he was 
found trembHng in afifright, and so weak he 
could not stand. Commanded to tell what 
had occurred, he declared that he had been 
assailed by a demon — a most frightful mon- 
ster, with a host of little imps in his train, 
who had beaten him until he fainted. The 
moment the Spaniards appeared, however, 
they promptly vanished, from which circum- 
stance he was convinced it was the devil that 
had attacked him, and, to guard against 
future visits, he desired to become a Chris- 
tian and be baptized. A priest who was 
standing by, one Friar John, solemnly shook 
his head and said it was even so; the youth 
was certainly possessed of a devil, and he 
would exorcise the arch fiend at once. This 
he did by the laying on of hands, and the 
afflicted boy recovered so quickly that all 
beholding were amazed. 

The desert, or wilderness, proved to be so, 
merely, in the sense of being uninhabited, or 
despohlado, as the Spaniards termed it. It 
really comprised a beautiful country, with 
tree - crowned hills and rugged mountains, 
grassy glades and foaming rivers, A great 
167 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

deal of game was captured by the Indian 
hunters, but on the seventh day out the 
provisions became entirely exhausted, for 
there were nearly nine thousand mouths to 
feed. To add to the perplexity of the com- 
manders, the broad road, or well-defined 
trail, which they had been following, abrupt- 
ly terminated, and they found themselves 
confronted with an apparently impenetrable 
forest. 

Both commanders became quite testy, 
and their men suffered in consequence, for 
they insisted upon the strictest discipline 
being maintained, even though their fol- 
lowers were on the verge of starvation. One 
of the Spaniards, a young man named 
Cadena, lost or misplaced his sword, and the 
governor ordered him to be hanged at once. 
He finally escaped the dread penalty through 
the intervention of his captain ; but an Indian 
who had been made prisoner, and who re- 
fused to reveal the road to Cofachiqui, was, 
by order of De Soto, burned at the stake. 

Not to be behind his rival in respect to 
discipline. Cacique Patofa made an example 
of a warrior who had deserted, by inflicting 
a peculiar punishment. He had him stripped 
and thrown down upon the bank of a small 
j68 



THE TRACKLESS WILDERNESS 

stream that flowed through his camp. Then, 
while two Indians stood over him with clubs, 
he was ordered to drink the streamlet dry. 
The poor wretch did his best; but still the 
stream flowed on, and whenever he ceased, 
from inability to perform the hopeless task, 
he was cruelly belabored by the Indians with 
their clubs. Patofa declared that he should 
dry up the stream or drink till he died ; but 
the sympathies of De Soto were enlisted, and 
he interceded so effectually that the warrior 
was released. 



XIII 

THE PRINCESS AND HER PEARLS 
1540 

DE SOTO encamped in a pine grove on 
the bank of a deep river, and there 
awaited the return of his scouts. Most of 
the weary troopers came back at nightfall, 
one after another, driving their horses be- 
fore them with sticks or leading them by the 
bridle, but without having found any road 
or sign of settlement. They were famished, 
as well as worn with fatigue, and, as the 
maize, acorns, wild grapes, and even the 
roots and herbs, were exhausted, the govern- 
or ordered some of the swine to be slaugh- 
tered, giving to each man half a pound of 
pork. This allowance was not sufficient 
to allay their hunger, but served to sustain 
them a little longer, and meanwhile four 
parties of cavalry were sent out again to 
scour the country. 

Juan de Anasco proved the successful scout, 
170 



THE PRINCESS AND HER PEARLS 

for, after travelling down-stream, along the 
river-bank, three days and nights, he espied 
an isolated hamlet. It held but few in- 
habitants at the time, but proved to be well 
supplied with provisions, one barbacoa, or 
corn-crib, containing five hundred measures 
of meal made from parched maize and a 
great quantity of corn on the cob. The 
famished Spaniards soon allayed the crav- 
ings of hunger, and Anasco sent back mes- 
sengers to the governor and his people, " who 
were as much delighted as though they had 
been raised from death to life." 

They broke camp immediately and pushed 
forward to the village, which De Soto apt- 
ly named Socorro, or Succor, and where he 
remained until all his scattered troopers had 
come in. For their information he had or- 
dered an inscription cut into the bark of 
a pine-tree : " Dig here ; at the root of this 
pine you will find a letter." 

He reached Socorro on a IMonday, and by 
Wednesday the three captains, who had been 
scouting in various directions, came strag- 
gling in, with nothing to add as to other vil- 
lages existing in the country. But one of 
them exhibited to De Soto a skull and pair 
of horns which he had found, and which 
171 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

puzzled them all exceedingly. They had 
heard of herds of cattle owned by the Ind- 
ians, and occasionally had been treated to 
a taste of beef, but could not learn where 
those herds were kept. The truth is, those 
"Indian cattle" were bison, or buffalo, 
which once roamed the prairies of the region 
traversed by De Soto in the year 1540 and 
thereafter. 

The Spaniards remained at Socorro a 
week, during which time diligent inquiry 
was made for other villages, and the coun- 
try was explored in every direction. Four 
Indians were captured, "not one of whom 
would say anything else than that he knew of 
no other town." The governor ordered one 
of them to be burned, and thereupon another 
said that two days' journey from there was 
a province called Cofachiqui. Socorro, in 
fact, was a frontier village of Cofachiqui, 
and several other settlements were discov- 
ered as the march was resumed down the 
river; but all were deserted, and had been 
recently ravaged. While the houses con- 
tained an abundance of provisions, and while 
the broad fields of maize had been carefully 
cultivated, showing that their owners could 
not have been long absent, not a living soul 
172 



THE PRINCESS AND HER PEARLS 

came forth to greet or repel the Spaniards, 
But, scattered along the trails, floating in 
the river, and out-stretched upon the thresh- 
olds of many a deserted hut, were the mu- 
tilated corpses of men, women, and chil- 
dren who had been barbarously murdered 
and scalped. Patofa's bands had preceded 
the Spaniards, and had taken vengeance 
upon their ancient enemies, the Cofachi- 
quis. Well aware that De Soto would not 
countenance such atrocities, they had com- 
mitted the massacres stealthily, and had 
pressed so far ahead of their allies that it 
was difficult for the governor to overtake 
them. 

Calling his captains around him, and point- 
ing to the scalpless corpses collected by his 
orders and heaped up in the public square of 
the village he had last entered, De Soto ex- 
claimed, indignantly: "Gentlemen, this must 
not be permitted to go on. We are, as you 
know, marching into an unknown country, 
and on the frontier of a province richer than 
any other we have entered. The queen of 
that province is reputed wealthy and pow- 
erful, and it behooves us to cultivate her 
friendship rather than incur her enmity. 
Go, then, forward, with your swiftest horse- 
173 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

men, and by all means intercept our ally, 
the cacique. Tell him to return, to come to 
me at once, for I wish to say certain things 
to him of moment." 

In this tenor spake the governor to his 
captains, and they obeyed him so well and 
so promptly that soon they had found and 
turned back the cacique, who came willingly, 
inasmuch as his vengeance had been sated, 
and he already had in his possession hun- 
dreds of scalps, which he would take back 
to his people as trophies of his prowess. 
When, therefore, De Soto said he had sent 
for the purpose of dismissing him with 
thanks and rich presents, and begged that 
he would return, Patofa assented, saying that 
he was satisfied, for he had done his duty by 
his ancestors, and their manes were appeased. 
He and his braves then returned to Cofaqui, 
while the Spaniards kept on to Cofachiqui, 
which they reached a few days later, with the 
gallant Juan de Aiiasco in the lead. At the 
head of a reconnoissance he discovered an 
Indian village on the opposite bank of the 
river, which, from its size, he imagined to 
be a place of importance, perhaps the resi- 
dence of the chief. He approached it at 
night, and, having stealthily made his way 
174 



THE PRINCESS AND HER PEARLS 

to the river-bank, where was a landing-place 
for canoes, and from which he could see 
innumerable lights and hear the confused 
murmur of many voices, he returned to 
report to his commander. Promptly at 
dawn the next day De Soto placed himself 
at the head of a hundred horsemen and 
advanced directly upon the town. When 
arrived at the river -bank he drew up his 
troopers in battle array, in order to make 
the most imposing appearance possible, and 
directed Juan Ortiz to say to the astounded 
Indians gathered on the opposite bank that 
he had a message for their cacique. 

A grave and dignified warrior advanced a 
few paces and demanded : " Come ye in peace 
or in war?" 

"In peace," replied De Soto, through the 
interpreter. " We desire only to speak with 
your cacique, and to have a free passage 
through your province, with provisions by 
the way." 

"It is well," replied the warrior. "I will 
speak to my queen." He then made three 
profound salaams, the first towards the sun, 
in the east; the second towards the moon, 
in the west; the third towards De Soto, who 
returned the salute most courteously. 
175 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

Soon after, a commotion was observed in 
the village, where a procession was being 
formed in front of the principal dwelling, and 
there later emerged from it a litter, or rustic 
palanquin, in which was seated a lovely 
Indian maid. The palanquin was borne on 
the shoulders of four stout men, who lowered 
it at the water -side and assisted the occu- 
pant, who was undoubtedly a princess or 
queen, into a large and gayly decorated 
canoe. There she reclined on soft cushions, 
beneath a canopy or awning supported on 
lances held by stalwart warriors. Eight 
comely attendants of her own sex surrounded 
and waited on this barbaric princess, whose 
barge of state was taken in tow by another 
grand canoe, filled with warriors and paddled 
by half-naked Indians. In this manner she 
approached the bank on which De Soto 
awaited her, seated in a gilded chair, like 
a throne, and surrounded by his captains 
in their shining armor. These brilliantly 
costumed strangers, with their caparisoned 
steeds and wonderful weapons, were things 
entirely new in the experience of this 
simple princess of the wilds; but she man- 
ifested neither alarm nor surprise as she 
landed from the barge and calmly took her 
176 



THE PRINCESS AND HER PEARLS 

seat on a large stool provided by an at- 
tendant. 

Then, with the aid of the interpreters, 
Juan Ortiz and Perico, the Indian boy, she 
and De Soto conversed together, while their 
attendants preserved a discreet silence. The 
Spaniards were impressed with her modesty, 
as well as her dignity, grace, and beauty of 
form and feature. She made a little speech, 
and a very pretty one, if we may believe the 
"Fidalgo of Elvas," who was one of the 
cavaliers present at the interview, and who 
thus reports it: " Excellent lord, be this com- 
ing to these your shores most happy. My 
ability can in no way equal my wishes, nor 
my services become the merits of so great 
a prince; nevertheless, good wishes are to 
be valued more than all the treasures of 
the earth without them. With sincerest and 
purest good -will, I tender you my person, 
my lands, my people, and make you these 
small gifts." 

While she was speaking she had been 
toying with a necklace of beautiful pearls, 
which " passed three times round her neck 
and descended to her waist, so many there 
were." After disengaging the necklace, she 
handed it to Juan Ortiz, with the request that 
177 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

he give it to De Soto. When told that the 
governor would appreciate it most highly if 
received from her own hands, she shrank 
back timidly, saying that she could not do 
so with propriety. When urged, however, 
she rose, and with a shy laugh threw the 
precious rope of pearls about his neck, he 
stooping to receive the gift, with that knight- 
ly courtesy for which he was ever celebrated. 
In return he placed upon one of her fingers 
a ring of gold set with a ruby, with which 
she was far more pleased than with the 
pearls, and thanked him gratefully. 

Then, the interview terminated, he handed 
her into her canoe, with helmet doffed the 
while, his captains likewise showing the 
princess those respectful attentions which 
are so highly appreciated by the gentler sex, 
whether living in the forest or at court. The 
cavaliers were glad, indeed, to behold this 
lovely apparition, suggestive of state and 
royalty; and though she was only half clad, 
in skins and not in silks, and her complexion 
was nut-brown in hue, her tresses raven 
black, they became quite enthusiastic in 
her praise. Her attendant maidens were 
equally discreet. Their eyes fell shyly as 
they beheld the bold glances of the soldiers, 
178 



THE PRINCESS AND HER PEARLS 

but they could not refrain from looking ad- 
miringly at those martial figures cased in 
armor. 

The cacica had offered De Soto not only 
half her house, but half the village for his 
soldiers, and, by her direction, on the follow- 
ing day rafts and canoes were sent over to 
ferry the army across the river. In due time, 
all had crossed over, though several horses 
were lost in the rapids and whirlpools with 
which the river abounded, having been un- 
wisely forced into them by their riders. A 
portion of the army was quartered in the 
village, but the bulk of the soldiers were 
lodged in capacious wigwams, which the 
princess had ordered built in a large mulberry 
grove on the bank of the river. After all 
their toils and battles, many of them would 
gladly have settled here, taking the Indian 
maidens for wives, and have made the be- 
ginnings of a settlement ; and it would have 
been better for many of them if they had 
done so, for they marched thence to misery 
and to death. 

The country was open, fertile, and attrac- 
tive, with great groves of walnuts and mul- 
berries, fine streams, and extensive grazing- 
lands. Two or three leagues distant from 
179 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

the village was another, the houses in which 
were abodes of bats and owls, for it had been 
abandoned by the Indians on account of a 
pestilence which had swept the land. In the 
old town were many sepulchres, filled, the 
natives told the Spaniards, with treasures of 
various sorts, such as skins of fur - bearing 
animals and pearls. Despite the pestilence, 
of which many of the inmates of these sep- 
ulchres had died, they were ravaged by the 
soldiers, who secured vast quantities of pearls, 
which they later threw away or lost on the 
march. 

"The cacica," says one of her guests, 
"observing that the Christians valued pearls, 
told the governor that, if he cared to order 
those sepulchres searched that were in her 
town, he would find many ; and if he chose 
to send to those that were in the abandoned 
towns, he might load all his horses with them. 
They examined those that were in the town, 
and found three hundred and fifty pounds' 
weight of pearls, and figures of babies and 
birds made of them." 

There were found, also, breastplates, glass 
beads, and armor. When the governor ex- 
claimed at the sight of so many pearls, the 
cacica simply said : " Do you consider that of 
i8o 



THE PRINCESS AND HER PEARLS 

much account? Go, then, to TaHmico, an- 
other village of mine about a league from 
this, and you will find so many that your 
horses cannot carry them." The governor 
replied: "Let them stay there, then. To 
whom God gives a gift, may St. Peter bless 
it." With this enigmatical reply, it is 
thought, he would have diverted attention 
from this deposit of pearls, with the inten- 
tion, perhaps, of returning to secure them 
at a more convenient time. 

"That same day," wrote Rodrigo Ranjel, 
his secretary, "the governor and some of 
his staff entered a mosque and oratory of 
this heathen people, and, opening some 
burying-places, they found some bodies of 
men fastened on a barbacoa. Their breasts, 
necks, arms, and legs were adorned with 
pearls; and as they were taking them off, 
Ranjel saw something green, like an emer- 
ald of good quality, and he showed it to 
the governor, who was much rejoiced, and 
he ordered him to look out of the enclosure 
and call Juan de Afiasco, their majesties' 
treasurer. Then Ranjel said to him, 'My 
lord, let us not call any one, for it may be 
that this is a precious stone or jewel.' 

"The governor replied somewhat angrily, 

'3 i8i 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

and said, ' Even if it be one, are we to steal 
it?' When Juan de Anasco came they took 
out this supposed emerald, and it was but a 
bit of glass, and there were also other and 
many beads of glass, as well as rosaries with 
their crosses. They also found Biscay an 
axes of iron; from all this recognizing that 
they were in the territory where the lawyer, 
Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon, came to his ruin. 
... In the mosque, or house of worship, at 
Talimico, there were found breastplates re- 
sembling corselets, and head-pieces made of 
raw-hide with the hair scraped off, also very 
good shields." 

The axes, armor, and beads were, doubt- 
less, relics of the ill-fated expedition of 
Vasquez de Ayllon, a lawyer from Santo 
Domingo, who had landed on the coast of 
what is now South Carolina in quest of 
Indian slaves. One cargo had been sent to 
Santo Domingo; but on the second voyage, 
Ayllon and his companions were set upon 
and massacred, to the number of more than 
two hundred, and the rich plunder was 
probably distributed among the tribes of the 
coast. No survivor of that expedition was 
found by De Soto ; but these relics show that 
he had reached a point within a few days' 



THE PRINCESS AND HER PEARLS 

journey of the Atlantic coast, near the mouth 
of the Savannah River. 

It appeared to some of De Soto's captains 
that the province of Cofachiqui would be 
a good one for a settlement. While the 
soil was not very fertile, yet it was good 
enough for their purpose, and while the 
colony was being established on a sure foun- 
dation, it might be supported by the pearl 
fisheries, and by trade opened direct with 
Spain. 

" But Soto, as it was his object to find an- 
other treasure like that of Atabalipa, lord of 
Peru, would not be content with good lands, 
or pearls, even though many of them were 
worth their weight in gold; so he answered 
them who urged him to make a settlement, 
that in all the country together there was not 
support for his troops a single month; that 
it was necessary to return to Acusi (Pen- 
sacola), where Maldonado was to wait; and 
should a richer country not be found, they 
who would could always return; and in 
their absence the Indians would plant 
their fields and be better provided with 
maize." 

Still, the governor was not insensible to the 
charms of the province, nor to the blandish- 
183 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

merits of its beautiful cacica, whose admira- 
tion for the handsome cavaHer amounted at 
first almost to worship. She not only enter- 
tained him hospitably, but she endeavored 
to induce her mother, the queen-regent, to 
visit her and see for herself what wonderful 
creatures were these beings who had honored 
her with their attentions. But the mother 
of the princess was a widow, and wary. The 
more she was urged to emerge from her 
retreat and show herself, the farther she 
retired into the forest depths. Learning that 
she was a woman of superior attainments, and 
that she possessed vast quantities of pearls, 
De Soto was very earnest in his efforts to 
draw her from the forest. He despatched the 
trusty Aiiasco with a troop, and the princess 
sent with him a young man, her cousin, as 
guide. He resembled the beautiful princess, 
it is said, bore himself with dignity, and was 
garbed as became a member of the royal 
family. 

It was noticed that the young prince 
departed on his mission with reluctance, 
though he received the request of the 
cacica as a command which he must obey. 
He led the Spaniards along the bank of a 
river, and at noon they rested in a grove 
184 



THE PRINCESS AND HER PEARLS 

of walnut - trees, where lunch was spread. 
After the meal was over, the guide took the 
quiver from his shoulder, and drew out the 
arrows in it, one by one. He looked them 
all over thoughtfully, and the Spaniards 
gathered about to admire them, for they were 
superior to any they had ever seen. Some 
were barbed with flint, and some with crys- 
tal, while the shafts of all were highly pol- 
ished and tipped with feathers. At length he 
drew forth an arrow dagger-pointed, though 
the barb was of flint. This, without a word, 
he plunged into his throat, and fell prostrate, 
bleeding from a mortal wound. 

The Spaniards were at first unable to con- 
jecture the cause of this action on the part 
of the youth ; but it developed that, while he 
was a favorite of the princess, he was also 
deeply attached to the queen-mother, whom 
the Spaniards intended to kidnap. As they 
could succeed only through his aid, he re- 
solved to extricate himself from the per- 
plexing situation in which he was placed by 
committing suicide. Thus the attempt to 
secure the queen-regent was frustrated, for 
no one else could guide the Spaniards to her 
hiding-place. De Soto, it is said, mourned 
the death of the high-spirited youth ; but not 
i8s 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

long after he confirmed the suspicions that 
chivalrous savage had formed of his inten- 
tions by carrying away as a captive the 
generous princess to whom he was so deep- 
ly in debt for inestimable favors. 



XIV 

DE SOTO's BEAUTIFUL CAPTIVE 
1540 

THE generosity of the cacica was ex- 
cessive, for the Spaniards lacked noth- 
ing that her kingdom could supply. When 
she learned from the interpreters that De 
Soto cared for gold above all other things, 
she told them that in a remote district of her 
territory there was a large deposit of yellow 
and shining metal, and she thought it must 
be that of which they were in search. She 
hoped so, at least, and if it proved to be, 
they had only to dig up and take away all 
they desired. So she sent some Indians for 
the "precious metal," who returned a few 
days later with as much as they could carry 
on their backs. The Spaniards, says their 
historian, did not have any acid, or touch- 
stone, for testing the metal; but it did not 
need an expert to perceive that this was not 
gold the Indians had brought them, but an 
187 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

alloy of copper; and what they supposed, 
from the descriptions, might be silver, proved 
to be nothing but mica and crystals of 
quartz. 

The Sj^aniards were bitterly disappointed, 
but the ])rincess was grieved, and it was 
to console them that she gave permission 
for the desecration of the royal sepulchres. 
When De Soto and a retinue of his captains 
visited the tombs of Talimico, they were 
surprised to find them within an edifice a 
hundred paces in length and forty in breadth. 
The roof was of reeds, but lofty, and the 
entrances were guarded by statues of wood 
excellently carved, and about twelve feet in 
height. They were probably effigies of the 
warriors who reposed here, their moulder- 
ing remains contained in wooden chests, or 
caskets, like those which Juan Ortiz was set 
to guard, in the distant province governed 
by Ucita. 

Besides the pearls, of which mention has 
been made already, there were robes of dress- 
ed skins, valuable furs, and rich mantles 
made of feathers and flax. All these articles 
had been placed here by the Indians in order 
that their chiefs and caciques, when they 
passed to the unknown region above, might 
i88 



DE SOTO'S BEAUTIFUL CAPTIVE 

carry with them the wealth they possessed 
on earth. Thus it will be seen that, what- 
ever mistakes their superstitions may have 
led them into, the Cofachiquis were violating 
their most cherished traditions when they 
allowed the Spaniards to ravish the graves 
of their great warriors. This was their Val- 
halla, their Pantheon, and around it were 
clustered memories that must have been 
tender and sacred. 

But even to this extent the generous nat- 
ure of the cacica carried her, in the desire to 
serve her guests and promote their welfare. 
More than fourteen bushels of pearls were 
found in the sepulchres, according to the 
historians, and though most of them had lost 
their lustre by having been long buried, this 
fact did not detract from the value of the 
gift. The Spaniards were given permission 
to carry away everything they found, and, 
base and perfidious to the last degree, they 
so perverted the noble intention of the offer 
as to carry off the cacica herself! 

By the time the spoils had been divided, 
and the lustrous pearls sifted out from those 
which had been injured by burial in the 
earth, or by fire used in opening the shells 
that contained them, the princess had dis- 
189 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

covered the true nature of her visitors, and 
meditated flight. It was quite natural that 
she should have grown cold and indifferent; 
but the Spaniards attributed the change to 
distrust, or treachery, and when De Soto 
was told that she refused to furnish guides 
and carriers for the army beyond the 
frontiers of her province, he took prompt 
measures to secure her person. It was his 
custom, as we have seen, to insure the 
services and fidelity of whatever people he 
was travelling among by seizing and hold- 
ing in durance their chief or leader; but in 
this instance the action was hardly neces- 
sary as a precaution, and was assuredly a 
gross insult to the friendly Cofachiquis. 

"On May 3, 1540," wrote the Fidalgo of 
Elvas, "the governor set out from Cuti- 
fachiqui [Cofachiqui], and, it being discov- 
ered that the wish of the cacica was to leave 
the Christians, if she could, giving them nei- 
ther guides nor carriers, because of the out- 
rages committed upon the inhabitants (there 
never failing to be men of low degree among 
the many who will put the lives of themselves 
and others in jeopardy for some mean inter- 
est), the governor ordered that she should be 
put under guard, and took her with him. 
190 



DE SOTO'S BEAUTIFUL CAPTIVE 

"This treatment was not a proper return 
for the hospitable welcome he had received; 
but thus she was carried away, on foot, with 
her female slaves. This brought us service 
in all the places that we passed, she ordering 
the Indians to come and take the loads from 
town to town. We travelled through her 
territories a hundred leagues, in which, ac- 
cording to what we saw, she was greatly 
obeyed, whatsoever she ordered being per- 
formed with diligence and efficiency." 

This offence of De Soto has been condoned 
by some, with the remark that he treated the" 
princess with deference and bound her with 
"silken chains," figuratively speaking; but 
she was a prisoner, nevertheless, having been 
made one against her will, and in violation 
of the most sacred rites of hospitality. She 
was constantly guarded, and her privacy 
invaded, though she was provided with a 
beautiful palanquin and allowed the attend- 
ance of her serving - maids. But neither 
princess nor maidens were the same as be- 
fore the advent of the Spaniards; no long- 
er the shy and fawnlike creatures who had 
greeted the cavaliers with downcast eyes 
and murmured welcomes. They spoke but 
seldom, they no longer sang, nor wove gar- 
191 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

lands for their favorites, as formerly, for 
their hearts were heavy. Silent and sad, 
the beautiful cacica was borne along in her 
palanquin, on the shoulders of her dejected 
warriors, while the maidens walked sullenly 
by her side. In this manner nearly three 
hundred miles were travelled, the governor 
going he knew not whither, save that he still 
sought for the yellow gold that had been the 
ruin of so many of his countrymen. 

The general direction of the march, after 
leaving the cacica's capital, was north, and 
then northwest, across the present state of 
Georgia. The province of Achalaque, which 
the Spaniards reached after seven days' trav- 
el, is supposed to have been the so-called 
barren country of the Cherokees, and was 
"the poorest off for maize of any that was 
seen in Florida. The inhabitants subsisted on 
roots that they dug in the wilds, and on the 
animals they destroyed with their arrows." 
Their poverty was such that, when the ca- 
cique presented De Soto with two tanned 
deer-skins, he seemed to think it a very great 
gift. But the wild creatures of the woods were 
very abundant, such as turkeys and prairie- 
hens, of which latter seven hundred were pre- 
sented to the Spaniards in a single village. 
192 



DE SOTO'S BEAUTIFUL CAPTIVE 

As the western boundaries of her province 
were approached, the cacica grew nervous 
and uneasy, for she doubted the word of De 
Soto, that he would release her on the con- 
fines of her dominion, and she was seen to 
talk more than usual with her maidens. 
Taking advantage of a curve in the trail one 
day, as they were passing through a dense 
forest, the captive princess suddenly sprang 
from the palanquin, and, with her faithful 
females, hid in a thicket at the head of a 
ravine. All search for them was fruitless, 
for when hunted up they scattered like a 
covey of quail, and were quite as successful 
in concealing themselves. They were found 
and joined by a band of the cacica's warriors, 
who had skulked through the forest for this 
very purpose, and, though more than three 
hundred miles from their homes, finally 
reached them in safety. The cacica's de- 
parture was greatly lamented by De Soto; 
not from any considerations of a sentimental 
nature, but because she had taken with her, 
in her flight, besides two negro slaves and a 
Barbary Moor, a petaca, or small chest of 
pearls, which, never having been pierced or 
exposed to fire, were of extraordinary value 
and beauty. 

193 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

Pearls, however, were a "drug in the 
market" at that time and in the circum- 
stances which beset the Spaniards, having 
no value unless they could be exchanged 
for provisions. It is told of a foot-soldier 
named Juan Terron, that, becoming tired 
of carrying a bag of beautiful pearls which 
he had taken from one of the sepulchres, 
he offered bag and contents, weighing more 
than six pounds, to a comrade on horse- 
back. 

" Nay, nay, Juan Terron," said the trooper. 
"Though I can carry them, still you had 
better keep them yourself. When next the 
governor sends to Havana, you can pur- 
chase, with the half of them, the finest horse 
in the island, and need no longer go afoot. 
Six pounds of pearls — verily, a king's ran- 
som!" 

"Whether they be so or no, here they go," 
exclaimed Terron, untying the mouth of the 
bag and whirling it about his head, with the 
result that all the pearls were scattered on 
the ground. Most of them were lost, as only 
thirty were recovered by the soldiers, who 
hastily scrambled for them ; and when it was 
seen how fine they were, their former owner 
was bantered unmercifully. He finally be- 
194 



DE SOTO'S BEAUTIFUL CAPTIVE 

came sensible of his folly, especially after 
the governor had rebuked him severely for 
his insensate act ; but it gave rise to a say- 
ing in the army, "There are no pearls for 
Juan Terron," which passed into a proverb. 

The two black runaways were recovered, 
but the lovely cacica and her maids were 
never beheld by the Spaniards again. As 
time passed, and the toilful march still 
continued, apparently without end or aim, 
many a sigh was sent after them by the weary 
soldiers, who thought with regret of the 
prospects cast away by the governor when 
he turned his back upon the land of pearls. 
The thoughts of De Soto himself were not 
divulged ; but doubtless he felt he had made 
a mistake, though his pride would not permit 
him to acknowledge it. 

"He was an inflexible man, and dry of 
word," wrote one who was with him at the 
time, " who, although he liked to know what 
the others all thought and had to say, after 
he once said a thing he did not like to be op- 
posed; and as he ever acted as he thought 
best, all bent to his will. For, though it 
seemed an error to leave that country, when 
another might have been found about it on 
which all the people could have been sus- 
195 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

tained until the crops had been made and 
the grain gathered, there was none who 
would say a thing to him after it became 
known that he had made up his mind." 

Thus he marched on, grim and inflexible, 
regretting, perhaps, that he had treated the 
cacica so harshly, though outwardly he gave 
no sign, excusing himself on the grounds of 
expediency. The next province belonged 
to the cacique of Ichiaha, who sent word 
that he had collected a great quantity of 
maize and mulberries for the Spaniards, and 
would meet them with a retinue of warriors. 
His country was fertile and well watered, 
with beautiful valleys and extensive savan- 
nas. His maize-fields were seemingly bound- 
less in extent, and when his chief village was 
reached there were twenty barbacoas full of 
the golden grain, which were placed at De 
Soto's disposal. 

At the head of five hundred plumed and 
stately warriors, the cacique met the Span- 
iards two miles from his village, which was 
set in a valley among the hills. It contained 
about three hundred houses, the largest of 
which, the cacique's palace, was perched 
upon an artificial mound surrounded by a 
spacious terrace. Towards this mound, after 
196 



DE SOTO'S BEAUTIFUL CAPTIVE 

fraternally greeting De Soto and his officers, 
the chieftain ordered his warriors to lead the 
way. As they approached it they parted 
column, and the Spaniards marched between 
their ranks, with banners flying and bugles 
blowing, to the quarters assigned them. 

They remained here many days, during 
the month of June, in fact, literally living 
on the " fat of the land." " We found here," 
says one of the company, "an abundance 
of lard, in calabashes, drawn like olive-oil, 
which the inhabitants said was the fat of 
bears. There was likewise found much oil 
of walnuts, which, like the lard, was clear 
and of good taste; and also a honey -comb, 
which the Christians had never seen before 
in this country, nor saw they afterwards, 
nor honey, nor bees." 

The Indian huts proving too confined, a 
camp was pitched in a grove of mulberry- 
trees between the hills, in front of which 
was a verdant meadow, where the lean and 
famishing steeds were turned loose to feast 
and recuperate. While the men and horses 
were refreshing themselves, De Soto was 
diligently inquiring for the gold - mines, 
which were reputed to be in the hills or 
mountains of this province. They lay, the 

14 197 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

cacique informed him, about thirty miles to 
the northward ; but the intervening country 
was a mere wilderness, and the mountains 
said to contain the mines were so rugged 
that no horse could travel in that region. 

By his advice, therefore, two sturdy sol- 
diers were sent to explore, on foot and ac- 
companied by guides. They were absent 
ten days, but returned in safety, though 
without any gold, of which, however, they 
thought they had discovered traces here 
and there. What they brought back with 
them was not gold, but ore of copper; thus 
again was the governor disappointed. The 
precious metal has been found in that 
province in times more recent; but not in 
such quantities as De Soto had hoped to 
discover it. The natives then had a few 
articles, in the shape of hatchets and "chop- 
ping -knives," of gold alloyed with copper, 
but no ornaments or jewels. 

Nearly all the streams of this province, 
and they were quite numerous, abounded in 
the fresh-water mussels which yielded the 
precious pearls. The cacique of Ichiaha, 
one day, threw over De Soto's broad shoul- 
ders a string of pearls a fathom in length. 
Some of them were as large as filbert-nuts, 
198 



D£ SOTO'S BEAUTIFUL CAPTIVE 

and of perfect shape, but had been injured 
by boring, with the aid of fire, in order that 
they might be strung as necklaces. If the 
governor desired more and better pearls, 
said the cacique, he might seek them in the 
sepulchres of his ancestors, where were count- 
less thousands. 

The governor replied, with an affectation 
of horror at the thought, that he would 
never consent to such an act of desecration 
as ravishing the royal tombs, but that he 
should like to see how the pearls were ob- 
tained. Struck by the consideration mani- 
fested by his guest, the obliging cacique at 
once despatched forty large canoes to fish 
for pearl-oysters during the night. In the 
morning he and De Soto repaired to the 
river-side, accompanied by their officers, and 
there the Spaniards witnessed the operation 
of opening the oysters, or mussels. Fires 
had been made of hard wood, and upon their 
glowing coals were placed the shell - fish 
brought ashore in the canoes. They were 
quickly opened by the heat, and from their 
gaping mouths the pearls were taken out, 
some of them as large as peas, and present- 
ed to De Soto. 

After the cacique had gratified his guest 
199 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

with this exhibition, he invited him to his 
house, where a repast was set forth at which 
the mussels were served in various dishes. 
While the meal was in progress, one of the 
soldiers at the lower end of the table uttered 
an exclamation, and, taking something from 
his mouth, after showing it to his compan- 
ions, rose and went towards De Soto. " See, 
my lord," he said. "Here is a pearl that 
neither fire nor smoke has injured, for I 
just now found it within an oyster I was 
eating. ' ' 

"Truly, my man," answered the governor, 
"it is large, and white, and beautiful. In 
Spain, I doubt not, it would bring four hun- 
dred ducats. Save it till we have occasion 
to send to the Havana, and there I will 
procure thee its value." 

" Nay, my lord. Allow me, rather, to pre- 
sent it to our lady patroness. Dona Isabel, 
whom we all hold in great esteem." 

"Not so," rejoined De Soto. "While I 
appreciate thy generosity, my son, I cannot 
allow thee to rob thyself. Keep it, then, 
and I myself will remit to the king his fifth 
part in thy stead." 

Thus the soldier's liberal disposition 
brought him the regard of his commander, 
200 



DE SOTO'S BEAUTIFUL CAPTIVE 

who, high - minded and generous himself, 
knew how to appreciate worth in others. 

Another incident, though a sad one, that 
occurred at this time, emphasizes the fact 
that all the men of De Soto's command were 
youthful, or in the prime of life, for it relates 
to one Juan Mateos, who was the only man 
among them whose hair was gray. While 
De Soto and the cacique were inspecting 
the pearl-fisheries, gray-haired Juan Mateos 
slipped into the thicket and cut a cane, 
with which, by the aid of a line twisted from 
some flax, and an improvised hook, he went 
fishing. As he was sitting quietly on the 
bank, concealed in the long grasses, one of 
the cavaliers named Luis Bravo darted his 
lance at a small animal he saw a short dis- 
tance away. As ill - luck would have it, 
the weapon missed the animal, but struck 
poor Juan Mateos in the temple, killing him 
instantly. Thus the Spaniards lost " Father 
Juan" — as he was called on account of his 
gray hairs — the oldest man in the army, but 
probably not more than fifty years of age at 
the time of his death. 

Having nearly exhausted the resources of 
this generous host, and, very wisely, desiring 
to depart before he had wholly done so, 

20I 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

De Soto announced his intention to proceed 
on his journey. The cacique of Ichiaha 
would have detained him, having conceived 
a great hking for the governor; but it was 
then midsummer (the first week in July, 
1540), and a great distance yet remained to 
be traversed before cold weather set in. 
Whence he was going, and wherefore, De 
Soto could not inform his friend ; but doubt- 
less his intention was to describe a great 
circuit and make his winter quarters at 
Pensacola, where the brigantines were in- 
structed to meet him in the month of 
October. Hence he followed the banks of 
the Coosa River, and constantly bore south- 
wardly, on a westerly course, going farther 
and farther from the Atlantic and towards 
the Gulf of Mexico. 

The next province to Ichiaha was that of 
Acoste, the cacique of which awaited the 
coming of De Soto in the great square of his 
chief town, with more than fifteen hundred 
warriors. He was fierce and warlike, his 
braves were well armed and insolent of 
manner ; but while the two armies were con- 
fronting each other, some vagabond soldiers 
or camp-followers began pillaging the huts, 
without giving a thought to the possible 
202 



DE SOTO'S BEAUTIFUL CAPTIVE 

consequences. The women who lived in the 
huts raised an outcry, at which many of the 
braves seized their war-clubs and set upon 
the vagabonds most lustily. De Soto, at the 
time, was well in advance of the main body, 
with a small retinue only. Perceiving his 
peril, should the cacique's warriors become 
exasperated and attack him, he sought to 
divert their attention by himself falling upon 
the soldiers who had caused the disturbance 
and beating them soundly. 



XV 

THE GREAT CHIEF, TUSCALOOSA 
1540 

THE cacique of Acoste and his warriors 
greatly enjoyed the spectacle of the 
governor beating his own men, being so 
diverted thereby that they neglected to 
secure him a prisoner while he was in their 
power. When they awoke to the fact, it was 
too late, for, meanwhile, De Soto had sent 
a message to the main army, which came 
hurrying forward to his rescue. Then their 
positions were reversed, for the cacique 
found himself a prisoner, together with his 
chiefs. He was greatly taken aback, and 
at first was disposed to be ugly ; but when the 
governor explained to him that it was his 
custom to honor every cacique he met, by 
surrounding him with an armed guard, he 
became quite tractable. A message arrived 
from Ichiaha at this juncture, informing him 
of what had occurred in that province, and 
204 



THE GREAT CHIEF, TUSCALOOSA 

he immediately gave orders for supplies of 
maize to be furnished the Spaniards, at the 
same time assuring De Soto that he and his 
people were entirely at his service. He was 
then liberated, and he not only calmed the 
ruffled feelings of his warriors, but assisted 
the Spaniards in crossing the river, by fur- 
nishing them with rafts and canoes. 

The Spaniards were then in the province 
of Cosa, or Coosa, a name which is now 
applied to a county of Alabama, through 
which, doubtless, De Soto passed on his way 
to Pensacola. It was a vast and fertile prov- 
ince, also very populous, and nearly every 
night, during several weeks, the Spaniards 
encamped at or near an Indian village, the 
inhabitants of which received them hospita- 
bly, supplied them with provisions, and fur- 
nished carriers from one place to another, so 
that there was no need of demanding either, 
and no conflicts occurred by the way, of any 
kind whatever. 

Such a rich and fruitful country the 
Spaniards had not seen in many a day. The 
fields of Indian-corn were of unknown extent, 
their green billows sweeping away to the 
horizon on every side, and there were beans 
and pumpkins, mulberries, wild plums, and 
205 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

grapes, in great variety. In the centre of 
the province was the village of Coosa, which 
was reached by the army about the last of 
July. The cacique had sent numerous and 
friendly messages to De Soto, and " came out 
to receive him at the distance of two bow- 
shots from the town," borne in a litter on the 
shoulders of four chiefs, and surrounded by 
many attendants playing upon flutes, sing- 
ing, and dancing. Over his shoulders he 
wore a rich robe of marten-skins, and on his 
head a diadem with plumes. He was a 
young man, with a winning and expressive 
countenance, and behind him marched at 
least a thousand warriors, tall and stately 
men, with feathers adorning their head- 
dresses. When arrived opposite the gov- 
ernor he made a little speech of welcome, 
and together they set out for the village, 
the Indian chieftain in his palanquin and 
De Soto riding alongside on his war-horse. 

Coosa was advantageously located for a 
colony, though a long distance from the sea- 
coast. De Soto was urged by his new friend 
to remain there, but he was anxious to 
meet Maldonado at the bay of Pensacola, 
and, though deeply sensible of the cacique's 
kindness, felt constrained to refuse his offer 
206 



THE GREAT CHIEF, TUSCALOOSA 

of territory. He remained with him twenty 
days, and when he departed took the cacique 
with him, an "honorable hostage," but 
actually a prisoner. As the narrators are 
divided on this point, we would allow De 
Soto, again, the benefit of the doubt; but 
two of them are agreed that the cacique was 
constrained to go against his will. One, his 
own secretary, says: "The Indians went off 
and left their chief in the power of the 
Christians, with some principal men, and the 
Spaniards went out to round them up, and 
they took many, and they put them in iron 
collars and chains. And verily, according to 
the testimony of eye - witnesses, it was a 
grievous thing to see. But God failed not to 
remember every evil deed; nor were they 
left unpunished, as this history will tell." 
" When they reached the frontiers of his 
territory," says the Fidalgo of Elvas, "the 
chief was released; but he went in anger 
and in tears, because the governor would not 
give up a sister of his that they took, and 
because they had taken him so far from his 
country." 

Another account, and that which we would 
rather believe, is to the effect that the cacique 
of Coosa went with De Soto to punish a re- 
207 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

fractory sub - chief, who was disposed to 
transfer his allegiance to a more powerful 
ruler named Tuscaloosa. This redoubtable 
chieftain, whose name, in Choctaw, is said to 
mean the great Black Warrior, governed the 
territory now chiefly comprised in the states 
of Alabama and Mississippi. He was prob- 
ably a Choctaw, and the most haughty and 
warlike of his tribe. He had heard, through 
his scouts and runners, of the arrivals on his 
frontier, and sent his son to meet them. 
Though only eighteen years of age, this youth 
was taller than any Spaniard in the army, 
agile and strong. He was kindly received 
by De Soto, who entertained him at a ban- 
quet and gave him a quantity of beads, as 
a present for his father. When he returned 
to Tuscaloosa, he was accompanied by Luis 
de Moscoso, master of the camp, and fif- 
teen cavalry, who were to observe what they 
could and report to De Soto, who followed 
leisurely after and encamped in a grove two 
leagues from the cacique's town. 

Apprised by a courier from De Soto that 
the Spaniards were approaching, Chief Tus- 
caloosa took his stand on the crest of a hill 
which commanded a wide and beautiful 
prospect, and, seated on a concave block of 
208 



THE GREAT CHIEF, TUSCALOOSA 

wood, which was his chair of state, or throne, 
awaited the coming of the strangers. Around 
him were his chief commanders, to the num- 
ber of a hundred, while on the plain below 
lay his army, containing many thousand 
men. By his side stood a young warrior, 
who held aloft a lance, upon which was sup- 
ported a banner of dressed deer-skin, dyed in 
bright colors and extended by crossed sticks 
to the shape and size of a Spanish buckler. 

Tuscaloosa was a man of commanding ap- 
pearance, and, though more than seven feet 
in height, was so symmetrically proportioned 
that he might have been chosen as a model 
of manly beauty. He was taller than any 
of his people by more than a foot; but, 
though his shoulders were broad and mas- 
sive, his waist was slender, while his hands 
and feet were small and well moulded. His 
eyes and hair were black as coal ; his face 
was expressive and intelligent; but his 
mouth was large, with teeth ivory-white 
and fanglike, giving him the appearance of 
a cannibal. 

When the cavaliers attending De Soto 
pranced before him, forcing their horses to 
curvet and caracole, he paid no more atten- 
tion to them than the Inca of Peru had be- 
209 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

stowed upon their commander himself in 
the environs of Cassamarca. He remained 
unmoved, hardly deigning to give them a 
glance; but when De Soto approached he 
extended his hand in welcome. He thank- 
ed him for the gifts he had sent, declar- 
ing that he esteemed them the more highly 
because they were from one whom he "re- 
garded as a brother." The two conversed 
awhile, then, hand-in-hand, wended their 
way to the village, where quarters were as- 
signed the troops, and a house given to the 
governor next to that occupied by the chief- 
tain. There was no lack of hospitality in 
Tuscaloosa's town, but the coldness and 
hauteur of the cacique kept De Soto con- 
stantly on guard. He cautioned his captains 
to post their sentinels discreetly and not for 
an instant relax their vigilance, as he felt 
certain the cacique meditated treachery. 
He had observed him in close and frequent 
converse with his sub-chiefs, and had noticed 
that warriors were gathering from every 
quarter. 

After remaining two days in the village, 
De Soto gave the order to march, and with 
him went Tuscaloosa, either voluntarily or 
as a hostage. The town of Talise, or that 

2IO 



THE GREAT CHIEF, TUSCALOOSA 

first entered by the Spaniards, was on the 
frontier; forty or fifty miles farther lay the 
capital, Tuscaloosa; and still farther, by 
several days' march, was Mauvila, his great 
stronghold. Whether the cacique went along 
a prisoner or not, he was mounted on a horse 
and accompanied the governor unfettered of 
limb or movement. Considerable difficulty 
was experienced in finding a steed sufficient- 
ly strong to bear his mighty frame ; but final- 
ly he was placed upon a pack - horse, the 
sturdiest beast in the troop, and, while his 
feet nearly touched the ground, he rode 
proudly, though fearsomely, at the head of 
the cavalcade. One of the governor's gifts 
to the cacique was a voluminous robe, scar- 
let in color, and a mantle to match, which, 
together with the chieftain's gigantic size 
and lofty plumes, made him "the observed 
of all observers." He might have been par- 
doned for indulging in a feeling of pride, even 
of exultation, for he out-matched De Soto in 
size and gorgeous garments, while in his heart 
he believed he was leading him to destruction. 
He coveted those wonderful animals, the 
horses, the armor and the weapons of the 
Spaniards, and after Mauvila was reached he 
determined to effect their capture. 

211 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

Tuscaloosa town, like Talise, was built on a 
peninsula formed by the windings of a river 
supposed to be the Alabama. It was a 
place of strength, but not so strong as 
Mauvila, w^hich, though it stood on a plain, 
was fortified with palisados. A short stay 
was made there, but only long enough to 
cross the river in canoes and on rafts fur- 
nished by the Indians. Thence the route 
lay through a very populous country, dotted 
with hamlets and swarming with warriors 
who, loosely gathered in troops and detached 
bands though they were, yet seemed con- 
verging towards a common centre, which 
was Mauvila. A few hundred only accom- 
panied Tuscaloosa and the Spaniards; but 
the chieftain was proudly confident in his 
strength, for he knew that at a signal the 
fields and the forests would be alive with his 
hardy warriors, who by sheer force of num- 
bers would overcome the Spaniards and de- 
stroy them utterly. 

It was, perhaps, difficult for the grim ca- 
cique to restrain his wild braves, scattered 
as they were throughout the wilderness, and 
though he desired to commit no overt act 
until fully prepared to carry out the scheme 
of destruction in its entirety, a few of the 



THE GREAT CHIEF, TUSCALOOSA 

Spaniards disappeared, having probably been 
murdered by Indians in ambush. Two sol- 
diers were missing one morning, and Tusca- 
loosa was asked if he knew what had become 
of them. 

" Do / know ?" he growled. "Why should 
I know? I have people of my own to care 
for. Why do you ask me about yours ? Did I 
ask you to place them in my charge ? I am 
not their keeper. Look for them yourself." 

The Spaniards looked, but in vain. The 
missing soldiers never answered at roll-call, 
nor were they heard of again. De Soto's 
suspicions were confirmed by several circum- 
stances on the march, and he exchanged hard 
words with Tuscaloosa, who finally became 
sullen and refused to speak after he had 
been taxed with treachery, but continued to 
supply the Spaniards with provisions and 
carriers, though acceding to their requisitions 
with evident impatience. 

It was plain to the governor that the 
cacique was anticipating his arrival at 
Mauvila, and could scarce contain himself 
until the town was reached. It lay above 
the confluence of the Alabama and Tom- 
bigbee rivers, less than a hundred miles from 
Pensacola. What the exact distance was 
IS 213 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

De Soto did not know, but he and his 
soldiers realized that they were nearing the 
projected rendezvous with Maldonado, and 
were already looking forward to a period of 
rest, as well as to news of their loved ones 
in Havana and Spain. 

For, in the bay of Pensacola, Maldonado 
was to meet them with the brigantines, in 
the month of October. That month had al- 
ready arrived, as it was on the i8th that 
they reached the town of Mauvila. After a 
few days here, devoted to rest and recupera- 
tion, they hoped to strike directly southward 
for the gulf. Already, they imagined, they 
could feel the sea-breezes kiss their cheeks, 
hear the roaring of the surf, and the cries of 
sea-birds as they skimmed the waves. 



XVI 

DESPERATE ENCOUNTER AT MAUVILA 
1540 

MAUVILA, the cacique Tuscaloosa's 
stronghold, was more like a fortress 
than a town. It contained eighty or a hun- 
dred houses; but they were huge, barrack- 
like structures, capable of holding from five 
hundred to a thousand people each, and 
were surrounded by an immense wall made 
of tree -trunks planted in the ground, wat- 
tled with vines, and plastered together with 
mud. Square towers, with platforms in- 
side for fighting -men, rose above the wall 
at intervals of fifty paces or so, and it was 
pierced with numerous loop-holes, through 
which darts and arrows might be discharged. 
As De Soto viewed this rude fortress, 
which seemed erected as a citadel for final 
defence, he acknowledged to himself that 
nothing short of artillery could breach its 
woven walls, and that it would be next to 
215 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

impossible to carry it by assault. He hoped 
there would be no occasion for attempting 
such a thing; but as it is a soldier's duty to 
consider every contingency, he looked Mau- 
vila over with a critical eye. He noted that 
there were but two gates, or entrance-ways, 
and these were strongly defended ; while out- 
side the walls the ground had been cleared of 
all trees, and even shrubs, so that, for more 
than a musket-shot around the town, there 
was no spot in which an enemy could hide. 

Sentinels were posted on the walls, and as 
De Soto (with his advance-guard only, com- 
prising about a hundred men) approached 
the eastern gateway, troops of warriors 
swarmed forth to greet him. They were all 
fighting -men, and fully armed; but grim- 
visaged war was skilfully masked by bands 
of native musicians, lustily pounding wooden 
drums and evoking shrill sounds from Indian 
fifes, while bevies of graceful dancing - girls 
capered around and among them. 

The warriors deployed on either side the 
gateway, while Tuscaloosa led the way with- 
in, the reluctant governor still by his side, 
but with suspicions all aroused. His martial 
instinct sounded the alarm ; but though a 
scout whom he had sent in advance sought 
216 



DESPERATE ENCOUNTER AT MAUVILA 

his side and reported that a dark and treach- 
erous plot was brewing, he was compelled 
by circumstances to go with the chief. Ten 
thousand warriors were already assembled 
within the town, the scout informed him, the 
pick of Tuscaloosa's fighting-men, and armed 
to the teeth. They were concealed in the 
largest houses, which, he said, were veritable 
arsenals, filled with weapons of every sort. 
If the governor would look around him, he 
would see that, while the streets were alive 
with men-of-arms, there was hardly a single 
woman or child — in a word, scarcely a non- 
combatant — left within the walls. These had 
been strengthened, the towers filled with 
armed men, and quivers full of arrows hung 
at convenient stations. 

Never before, perhaps, had De Soto walked 
deliberately into such a trap, and prepared, 
too, by one whom he already suspected. 
Still, he could not do else than dissemble; 
and when the cacique, with a grim smile that 
bared his cannibal fangs, indicated one of 
the houses as quarters for the governor and 
his officers, he thanked him courteously. He 
even consented to the tethering of their 
steeds and the encamping of the troops at a 
distance outside the walls, though he knew 
217 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

that this division of his army, separating 
officers from their horses and both from the 
main body of foot and cavalry, might insure 
their swift destruction. 

Having disposed his guests to his satis- 
faction, the cacique dismounted, and was 
about to depart, when De Soto halted him 
with a request that he remain and share 
his quarters, also the noonday meal, which 
would soon be ready. Drawing himself up 
to his full height, and wrapping around his 
burly form the scarlet robe which the gov- 
ernor had given him, Tuscaloosa replied, with 
a snarl : " I have had enough of your com- 
pany; I am tired of walking and of riding. 
This is my own land, and not any of it is 
yours. So, go you in peace, and when you 
will; but do not think that I, Tuscaloosa, 
shall go with you out of my own country. I 
shall stay in my stronghold." With these 
words, or others to their purport, the haughty 
chieftain strode away and entered a house 
which had been observed to be filled with 
Indians armed with bows and arrows. 

The governor bit his lip with vexation; 

but he was, at the moment, helpless, for the 

main body of the army, including many of 

the cavalry and all the infantry, was yet at 

218 



DESPERATE ENCOUNTER AT MAUVILA 

a distance. Captain Luis de Moscoso, mas- 
ter of the camp, had command of the rear- 
guard, and was responsible for its dilatory- 
movements. He had said to the governor, 
that morning, that, since the Indians were 
so evil-disposed, it would be better to camp 
in the woods, to which De Soto had answered : 
" I am impatient of sleeping out, and purpose 
to lodge in the town." And he had his way, 
as he always had it, with the result that we 
have noted. While Moscoso and the main 
body were lagging behind in the forest, the 
governor was being consumed with anxiety. 
At any moment the trap might be sprung, 
the fire-brand be thrown, that would explode 
the mine beneath his feet. 

Yet, with a calm countenance, he ordered 
his baggage taken to quarters and dinner 
prepared. It had been his custom to have 
the cacique at meals with him, as well as 
within sight all the time. When dinner was 
announced he sent the interpreter, Juan 
Ortiz, to call him, but he was not allowed to 
enter the house in which the cacique had 
concealed himself, though a young warrior 
promised to give him the message. After a 
while of waiting, De Soto sent again, and, 
receiving no satisfactory reply, despatched 
219 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

Ortiz a third time on his errand. This time, 
though he was again halted at the door of 
the house, he shouted so loud that all within 
might hear: "Tell the chief, Tuscaloosa, to 
come forth ; for the food is on the table, and 
his excellency is tired of waiting." 

Scarcely were the words out of his mouth 
than an Indian brave burst through the door- 
way, and, shaking his fists menacingly at 
Ortiz, exclaimed furiously: "Who are these 
robbers, these vagabonds, who keep calling 
to my chief, 'Tastalusa come out, come out!' 
as if he were one of them? By the Sun, our 
god, and the Moon, his wife, such insolence 
cannot longer be borne ! Come out, brothers, 
come out, and let us cut them to pieces!" 

His eyes flashed fire, he frothed at the 
mouth ; but he may have meant nothing more 
than mere bravado. Still, when an Indian 
behind him placed a bow with arrows in his 
hand, he threw back his cloak of marten-skin, 
which hung over one shoulder, and made as 
if to use the weapons instantly. Fixing an 
arrow on the string, he drew it to its head, 
and was about to let fly at a group of Span- 
iards gathered in the square. In doing this 
he exposed his naked side, and Baltasar 
de Gallegos, a cavalier who had come with 
220 



DESPERATE ENCOUNTER AT MAUVILA 

Ortiz, gave him such a gash with his sword 
that it was laid open in a gaping wound, 
through which his life-blood gushed in a 
crimson flood. 

He fell dead on the spot; but an avenger 
appeared in the person of his son, a noble- 
looking youth, who sent six or seven arrows 
at Gallegos as fast as he could speed them. 
Seeing that they glanced harmless from his 
armor, he rained blows from his bow upon 
the helmeted head of the cavalier, with such 
force that the blood ran down his forehead. 
But he was soon laid low beside his father, 
with two thrusts of the sword, and the 
dazed Gallegos retreated with what speed he 
could. 

At the same instant, as if at a preconcerted 
signal, a terrible war-whoop burst from ten 
thousand throats, and the concealed warriors 
poured forth into the streets. They attack- 
ed the Spaniards furiously, giving them scant 
time to seize their arms, and cutting off the 
cavalry from their horses, which were teth- 
ered outside the walls. 

All within the town ran for the gates, and 
the governor was by no means a laggard in 
the race, though, encumbered by his armor 
as he was, he fell twice or thrice before he 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

reached his horse. Leaping to the saddle and 
cutting loose the reins, he shouted to the sol- 
diers: "Into the open, sons! — into the open! 
Draw the heathen away from the walls and 
then make a stand and fall upon them!" 
Some of the troopers followed him, and a 
little band was gathered; but some others 
were not so fortunate, for, unable to gain 
their mounts, they lost their horses, as they 
were shot to death with arrows, and most of 
them lost their lives. 

De Soto received a severe wound early in 
the action, an arrow having struck him in the 
thigh ; but, though unable to sit in his saddle, 
and compelled to fight standing in his stir- 
rups, he continued in active conflict nine long 
hours, during which time the battle raged 
unceasingly. His wound was very painful; 
but he ignored it in the heat of battle, and 
his concern for himself was swallowed up in 
that for his men. Among those killed that 
day were his two nephews, Carlos Enriquez 
and Diego de Soto. Both were shot with 
Indian arrows, the one in the eye and the 
other in the neck. 

Having drawn many of the savages out 
into the plain, De Soto turned upon them 
with his cavaliers and inflicted great slaugh- 

222 



DESPERATE ENCOUNTER AT MAUVILA 

ter before they could regain the gates. The 
survivors retreated precipitately within the 
walls, and, shutting the gates, greeted the 
Spaniards with howls of defiance and deri- 
sion. They considered themselves safe from 
attack, within their impregnable stronghold, 
and, having secured nearly all the baggage of 
the command, which had been brought in 
by the carriers, they proceeded to divide the 
plunder. As fast as the carriers came in, they 
had relieved them of their burdens, which 
they took inside the walls ; then they broke 
their chains, and, placing weapons in their 
hands, sent them to join Mauvila's defenders. 
In the midst of the tumult, the advance 
of the rear - guard, under Moscoso, came 
up, and, when all had arrived, a cordon 
was formed about the doomed stronghold, 
through which it was next to impossible for 
the invested force to break. As the fortress 
was well provisioned, the beleaguered Ind- 
ians did not concern themselves as to the 
immediate future, but seemed to have re- 
solved to await the dispersion of the Span- 
iards. Then they would sally forth and fall 
upon them in the forest, by their great num- 
bers overcoming any advantage the stran- 
gers might have as to weapons and armor. 
223 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

But they did not understand those iron- 
hearted men of Spain, who never retired in 
defeat, who ever fought on to a victory. The 
savages had made it impossible for them to 
retire from the field, since they held their 
baggage, which contained, not alone all their 
surplus armor and clothing, their plunder of 
pearls, medicines, bandages for binding up 
wounds, and surgical instruments, but also 
many swords and arquebuses, which the 
careless soldiers had forced the porters to 
carry when weary with their weight. 

Moreover, it was awesomely told De Soto 
that, in the hurry and confusion of the re- 
treat, a small body of men had been left 
behind in the house he had occupied. There 
were five halberdiers and three cross-bow-men 
of the governor's guard, besides a friar, a 
priest, and two Indian slaves. These were in 
peril, and unless promptly succored would 
certainly be slain. Arms and equipment 
De Soto might, perchance, leave behind, but 
never a man of his command so long as 
there was hope that his life might be saved. 
Then, doubtless, the governor wished for the 
one piece of artillery which he had left with 
the cacique of Cofaqui, for with it he might 
have battered the walls and opened a breach 
224 



DESPERATE ENCOUNTER AT MAUVILA 

through which to rush to the rescue of his 
comrades. 

But rescued they must be — they should 
be — with the falconet or without it. He 
circled the walls in vain, looking for a weak 
place or any kind of an opening. Then he 
drew rein just out of bowshot from the east- 
ern gate. "We must storm it," he sternly 
said. " One hundred with bucklers and bat- 
tle-axes, one hundred with lance and sword. 
On, my sons! Santiago! and at them!" 

Then at the gate he led them — a human 
battering-ram. Nothing could withstand the 
onset of those steel-cased cavaliers. Pro- 
tected by their bucklers, they wielded the 
ponderous battle-axes with such effect that 
the gate went down with a crash. 

Into the gap they poured tumultuously, 
shouting their battle-cries, slashing and lanc- 
ing all who opposed, and in the midst of 
showers of arrows that glanced from their 
armor like hail. Not all escaped, however, 
for the savages had found their vulnerable 
points, and shot at their faces and necks, as 
well as at their horses from beneath as they 
passed over those who were overthrown. 
The house was reached and the inmates 
rescued just in the nick of time, for the 
225 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

Indians had removed the roof and were 
shooting their arrows at the little group of 
defenders huddled within. The rescue ef- 
fected, the troopers fought their way back 
to the fields, carrying their comrades with 
them and inflicting such slaughter by the 
way that the Indians finally paused, aghast. 

Hundreds had fallen, but the end was not 
yet. At the command of De Soto, the village 
was set on fire, and scarcely anything within 
it escaped the devouring flames. Construct- 
ed of dry wood and grass, that burned like 
tinder, the houses and towers were quickly 
consumed, and with them all they contained, 
including the baggage of the army as well as 
the brave defenders of Mauvila. Maddened 
by their sufferings, choked by the volumes of 
smoke that swept the streets, and scorched 
by the flames, the Indians broke down the 
walls and made for the fields ; but, again and 
again, the Spaniards drove them back. 

The carnage was horrible ; the slain lay in 
heaps, in windrows, in masses, mingled with 
charred timbers and the burning wreckage 
of the town. The Indians fought to the bit- 
ter end, and if one escaped it was not by 
mercy of the Spaniards, who ranged around 
the fallen walls like demons incarnate. The 
226 



DESPERATE ENCOUNTER AT MAUVILA 

last of the warriors seen to fall was a gigantic 
savage, who perished by his own hand. He 
had been the centre of a group which, fighting 
with fury and despair, had been crushed out 
of existence by the Spaniards. All save him- 
self had fallen, and, in a dazed way realizing 
this, he sprang to the rampart, intending to 
leap over and escape. But, seeing his re- 
treat cut off by the soldiers, waiting like 
crocodiles beneath for him to fall into their 
jaws, he snatched a bow - string and hung 
himself from the limb of a tree that projected 
over the wall. 

That intrepid warrior was the last Indian 
seen in the town, either in fight or flight. 
The dead and the wounded numbered nearly 
three thousand. The Spaniards lost eighty 
men and forty horses, and among them count- 
ed up seven hundred wounds, which there 
was but a single surgeon to dress, and he 
unskilled. What became of Cacique Tus- 
caloosa could not be learned, but he was 
never seen by the Spaniards after he entered 
the house in which the battle began. The 
body of his son, covered with wounds, was 
found in a field; but the gigantic chieftain 
disappeared as utterly as if swallowed up 
by the flames that devoured two thousand 
227 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

of his warriors. More than a thousand were 
said to have perished in a single building, 
having been suffocated by the smoke. 

Whether Chief Tuscaloosa perished with 
them, or whether he survived that day of 
disaster to his tribe and in some other part 
of his broad domain ruled afterwards the rem- 
nant of his people, is not known; but his 
proud name will never be dissociated from 
the land in which he lived. 



XVII 

DE SOTO's FATAL DECISION 
1541 

THE Spaniards had arrived at Mauvila, 
or Mabila (which, no doubt, was the 
Indian name for Mobile), on October i8th, 
and, says De Soto's secretary, Rodrigo 
Ranjel, "after the end of the battle as de- 
scribed they rested there until November 
14th, caring for their wounds and their 
horses. Up to that time the total deaths, 
from the time the governor and his forces 
entered the land of Florida, were one hundred 
and two Christians — and not all, to my think- 
ing, in true repentance." Further, he says: 
"They killed three thousand of the vaga- 
bonds, without counting many others who 
were wounded and whom they afterwards 
found dead in the cabins along the road. 
Whether the chief were alive or dead was 
never known; but the son they found 
thrust through with a lance." 
16 229 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

The battle of Mauvila was a crucial event 
with De Soto, for he lost more than men and 
horses, plunder and ammunitions: he lost 
hope, and, in a certain sense, he lost courage. 
Though he was not animated by the highest 
of motives hitherto, yet his invincible spirit, 
his dauntless bravery, compel our admiration. 
But after the terrible conflict at Mauvila we 
cannot but wonder at the obstinacy of the 
man in persisting in a course which every one 
in the army but himself recognized as crimi- 
nally wrong. 

While resting in Tuscaloosa's territory, en- 
deavoring to repair his losses in some meas- 
ure, waiting for the wounded to recover or die, 
he received the information that Maldonado 
had arrived at Pensacola with supplies and 
reinforcements. Such gladsome tidings, com- 
ing to him in the midst of dire discourage- 
ments and perplexities, could not but have 
given him the greatest satisfaction and re- 
newed in his heart the long - deferred hope 
of establishing that colony which it was his 
intention to found in Florida. The bay of 
Pensacola was then but a seven days' journey, 
or less than a hundred miles, distant from 
Mauvila, and the soldiers naturally expected 
that his next move would be in that direc- 
230 



DE SOTO'S FATAL DECISION 

tlon. The general course of their route from 
Coosa had been southwest, and a continua- 
tion of it would have brought them to the 
gulf. The battle with Tuscaloosa's warriors 
was only an episode of the long journey, 
which, instead of frustrating their intention, 
should have emphasized the necessity for 
meeting the ships and securing supplies, even 
were the search for gold to be continued. 

Nothing was further from the governor's 
intentions than to abandon this search, not- 
withstanding the fact that, after more than a 
year, devoted to toilsome marches and per- 
sistent seeking, no trace of the precious met- 
al had been found. It was a reasonable as- 
sumption, then, that further search would be 
worse than useless, and this view was adopt- 
ed by the soldiers generally, who, in discuss- 
ing the situation among themselves, agreed 
that, the bay of Pensacola once arrived at, 
they would take the first opportunity that 
presented itself for leaving the country. 
There were still other lands, such as Peru 
and Mexico, where gold had already rewarded 
adventurers with great wealth, and which 
had been obtained with one-tenth the toil 
and fighting they had experienced. 

No one could doubt their loyalty to the 
231 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

governor ; no one could charge that they had 
not endured patiently and accepted with- 
out complaint the severe trials that had been 
their portion. But, while these dauntless spir- 
its were not in the strictest sense disheart- 
ened, they saw that nothing was to be gained 
by continually fighting half -naked savages 
and wandering about aimlessly over a coun- 
try that displayed no evidence of wealth, 
either in the accumulations of the people or 
in its natural resources. 

Now, the information received by the gov- 
ernor respecting the arrival of Maldonado 
was conveyed to him privately, through the 
interpreter Ortiz, whom he cautioned to 
keep it secret. Rumors, however, reached 
the soldiers, and when De Soto talked with 
his officers of his plan for continuing the ex- 
ploration after reaching the coast, they in- 
formed him that in all probability he would 
be left without support. This intelligence 
came to De Soto like a revelation, for up to 
that time his men had yielded unquestioning 
obedience to his slightest wishes, and he 
could not believe them capable of thwarting 
him in any event. So he disguised himself 
and went stealthily about the camp. The 
upshot of it was that he returned to his 
232 



DE SOTO'S FATAL DECISION 

quarters with the worst news that he had 
heard confirmed, and from that moment was 
a changed individuaL 

He seemed to forget that these men, 
comprising Spaniards of every rank, from 
the humblest soldier to the proudest hidalgo, 
had embarked on this expedition at his own 
solicitations, had ventured their entire fort- 
unes, whether large or small, had suffered ex- 
treme privations, witnessed the deaths of a 
hundred companions and the sweeping away 
of all their accumulations, with hardly a 
murmur of complaint. 

He thought only of his own terrible losses : 
of the fortune he had spent in the equip- 
ment, of the renown and dignities he had 
gained, and hoped to gain, trampled, as it 
were, in the dust; of the return to Cuba, not 
only penniless, but an object of hatred and 
contempt. In a sentence, then, he resolved 
to turn his back on Pensacola and safety, 
"because the pearls he wished to send to 
Cuba for show, that their fame might raise 
the desire of coming to Florida, had been 
lost, and he feared that, hearing of him with- 
out seeing either gold or silver, or other 
thing of value from that land, it would ac- 
quire such a reputation that no one would 
233 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

be found to go there when men should be 
wanted." 

Thus wrote one of the annalists who was 
with him, the anonymous Fidalgo of Elvas, 
who further says: " So he determined to send 
no news of himself until he should have dis- 
covered a rich country." 

Yes, that was his resolve: to set his face 
again to the wilderness; to forego the lux- 
ury of rest and refreshment the ships would 
afford; to deprive himself of news from his 
wife and his government in Cuba; and all 
that his stubborn pride might not be 
wounded. 

The stern, invincible nature of the man, 
De Soto, is displayed in this determination; 
but also, alas! his supreme selfishness. He 
thought only of himself, of his blasted hopes, 
his unsatisfied aspirations; but to the other 
nine hundred entities comprising his com- 
mand he gave, apparently, scant considera- 
tion. They, too, had honorable aspirations, 
hopes, desires; they had wives and children, 
whose hearts were yearning for some news 
of them; they had fought, and freely shed 
their blood, that their commander might 
realize his ambitions; yet they were ignored. 

It was in this spirit that he gave the or- 
234 



DE SOTO'S FATAL DECISION 

der to leave Mauvila and march northward, 
instead of southward — into the unknown 
wilderness, instead of towards the coast and 
the ships. Pursued by this daemon of un- 
rest and unsatisfied ambition, he continued 
to wander thereafter, until a year later he 
met the messenger of death. That the 
soldiers murmured when ordered to march 
away from the haven of their desires, is not 
to be wondered at; that they did not mu- 
tiny is more surprising. But they did not 
dare to oppose their stern commander, who, 
though he might be irrational, even eccen- 
tric to the verge of insanity, yet represented 
the crown and their king. Silent and sullen 
were they, as they stored their wallets with 
two days' provisions of toasted maize and 
took their places in the ranks — those deci- 
mated ranks. Heavy must have been the 
hearts of the soldiers as they thought upon 
the comrades who had fallen. 

"I have wondered many times," wrote 
the historian, Oviedo, more than three hun- 
dred years ago, "at the venturesomeness, 
stubbornness, and persistency, or firmness — 
to use a better word for the way these 
baffled conquerors kept on, from one toil to 
another, and then to another still greater; 
235 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

from one danger to many others : here losing 
one companion, there three or four; going 
from bad to worse, without learning from 
experience. 

"O wonderful God! That they should 
have been so blinded and dazed by a greed 
so uncertain and by such vain discourses as 
Hernando de Soto was able to utter to those 
deluded soldiers, whom he brought to a land 
which he had never seen, nor put foot into, 
and where three other leaders, more experi- 
enced than he, had ruined themselves. . . . 

" O wicked men, O devilish greed, O bad 
consciences! O unfortunate soldiers! That 
ye should not have understood the perils ye 
were to encounter, how wasted would be 
^''our lives, and without rest your soul!" 

How true the words of the moralist, com- 
ing down to us through the centuries which 
have intervened between his time and ours! 
Yet those men of action did not pause to 
moralize. They could not have scanned 
their deeds as they transpired, for, had they 
done so, we should not have to record such 
things of them as are shown in the preced- 
ing pages. "From the moment that De 
Soto discovered the purpose of his men to 
leave him, once were the coast attained," 
236 



DE SOTO'S FATAL DECISION 

writes the most entertaining of his biogra- 
phers, "he became a moody, irritable, dis- 
contented man. He no longer pretended to 
strike out any grand undertaking, but, stung 
with secret disappointment, went recklessly 
wandering from place to place, apparently 
without order or object, as if careless of 
time and life, and only anxious to finish his 
existence." * 

Five days of marching through a fertile 
country, pleasant even in November, took 
them to the frontiers of another province, 
where they found, gathered on the farther 
bank of a deep, wide, and rapid river, fifteen 
hundred warriors to oppose them. These 
were commanded by a cacique who had 
heard of the atrocities committed in Mauvila, 
and who replied to De Soto's proffer of peace : 
"Nay, war is what we want, a war of fire 
and of blood." 

" So be it," muttered De Soto. " We come 
as men of peace, but war is our vocation." 

It would have fared ill with the cacique 
could the governor have reached him then; 
but twelve days elapsed before the stream 
was crossed, owing to the necessity for 
building piraguas. During that time the 
* Theodore Irving, in The Conquest of Florida. 
237 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

opposing skirmishers were incessantly in 
conflict; but when, after infinite toil, the 
army had been ferried over the river, short 
work, indeed, was made of the Indians. 
After seizing and sacrificing a friendly 
native, who had been sent over with a 
message of peace, the savages fled to a fort 
of palisados and the Spaniards took posses- 
sion of their village. 

They were now in the coimtry of the 
Chickasaws, and here they established them- 
selves in cantonment for the winter of 1540- 
1541. Following his invariable custom, De 
Soto tried to draw the cacique of the Chick- 
asaws from his retreat, sending him as a 
bait some roasted pork, having sacrificed a 
few of his precious swine for the purpose. 
The chief and his warriors ate the meat with 
relish, finding it so delicious that they could 
not resist the temptation to appropriate such 
of the swine as they could secure by prowling 
about the camp at night. The governor had 
not intended to go to this extreme of hospi- 
tality, and two Indians caught in the act of 
stealing hogs were by his orders summarily 
shot, while another thief had his hands cut 
off as a warning. 

The cacique " appeared grieved that they 
238 



DE SOTO'S FATAL DECISION 

had given offence, and glad that they were 
punished"; but when two Spanish soldiers 
entered his house during his absence, and 
stole several marten-skins, he insisted that 
the same punishment should be inflicted 
upon them. The governor, being then and 
thereafter in stem and melancholy mood, 
assented to the justice of this proposition, 
and condemned the soldiers to death. In 
vain his officers and chaplains begged him 
to be merciful. The culprits were led forth 
to be executed, when at this juncture a party 
of Indians arrived in the village. They came 
to complain of these very soldiers ; but Juan 
Ortiz, the only interpreter, told the governor 
that the cacique desired him to pardon them, 
and, as a favor to the savage, he did so. Or- 
tiz then informed the embassy that the real 
offenders were in prison, and would be pun- 
ished with great severity. 

Whether on account of this double-dealing 
or not, the Indians soon displayed unmistak- 
able signs of hostility, and De Soto warned 
Camp-master Moscoso to be constantly on 
his guard. Twice, already, Moscoso had 
failed his commander at a critical moment, 
and a third time he was to prove unreliable, 
for, one dark and stormy night, when the 
239 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

north wind was shrieking through the village, 
the Indians stealthily passed the sentinels 
and gained the central square. Above the 
howling of the tempest rose the shrill war- 
whoop and rolling of barbaric drums. Sud- 
denly the whole hamlet burst into a blaze, 
for the savages had shot fire-tipped arrows 
into the thatched roofs of straw, and also 
lighted them with torches, which they had 
carried concealed in earthen pots. 

Fanned by the gale, the fire swept the 
village, driving the astonished Spaniards 
from their shelters and into the arms of 
their relentless foes. They were dazed by 
the swiftness of the assault, scorched by the 
flames, and half suffocated by the smoke; 
but they fought like fiends, grasping the first 
weapons they could lay hands upon. 

De Soto himself leaped forth with less 
than half his armor on, but, sword in hand, 
mounted his horse and dashed into the midst 
of the savage throng. Seeing in front of him 
an Indian of gigantic frame, whom he took 
for the cacique, he charged at him with his 
lance, upon which he leaned with all his 
weight to give force to the blow. As he did 
so the saddle slipped, having been put on 
hastily and without being girthed, and he 
240 



DE SOTO'S FATAL DECISION 

fell headlong to the ground. The savage 
leaped upon him, and the next moment would 
probably have been the governor's. last, had 
not a dozen troopers dashed to his rescue, 
and with lance and sabre held the Indians off 
till he had gained his feet and remounted his 
horse. Then, without a moment's hesitation, 
he spurred into the thickest of the fight again. 

Though more than forty Spaniards per- 
ished in the flames or at the hands of 
the Indians, victory eventually crowned De 
Soto's efforts, and the savages were van- 
quished. They had accomplished their chief 
design, however, which was to secure posses- 
sion of the swine, for, shut within a thatched 
enclosure, nearly the whole herd met death 
in the flames, and for several days thereafter 
the Indians had a surfeit of roast pork. 

Fifty horses, also, were destroyed that 
night, some by fire and others by the Indian 
arrows, so that when dawn revealed to the 
Spaniards the extent of their losses they 
found themselves in a worse plight than at 
Mauvila. They were houseless, almost with- 
out food or raiment, and as the weather was 
extremely cold, their condition was pitiable. 



XVIII 

HOW THE MISSISSIPPI WAS CROSSED 
154I 

THE fatal night of the fire was on March 
4, 1 541. That evening, after making 
his rounds, the governor had proclaimed 
aloud to his men: "To-night is an Indian 
night. I shall sleep armed and have my 
horse saddled; and do all ye cavaliers the 
same. " It was well that he did so, and would 
have been better for all had they followed his 
example ; but, by the plight in which the fire 
left them, they paid dearly for their careless- 
ness. 

"If by good luck any had been able to 
save a garment until then," says the Fidalgo, 
"it was there destroyed. Many remained 
naked, not having had time to catch up their 
skin dresses. And in that place they suf- 
fered greatly from cold, the only relief being 
in great fires, and they passed the long night 
in turning, without the power to sleep ; for 
242 



HOW THE MISSISSIPPI WAS CROSSED 

as one side of a man would warm, the other 
would freeze. Some contrived mats of dried 
grass, sewed together; and many who laugh- 
ed at this expedient were afterwards com- 
pelled to do the like. The Christians, in fact, 
were left so broken up that, what with the 
want of saddles and arms which had been 
destroyed, had the Indians returned the sec- 
ond night they might, with little effort, have 
been overpowered." 

"And that you may know, reader," wrote 
Oviedo, the historian, "what sort of a life 
these Spaniards led, Rodrigo Ranjel, an eye- 
witness, says that among many others who 
were enduring great hardships in this under- 
taking, he saw a knight, one Don Antonio 
Osorio, brother of the lord marquis of As- 
torga, wearing a short garment made of the 
blankets [buffalo - hides] of that country, 
torn at the sides, his skin showing, bare- 
headed, barefooted, without hose or shoes, 
a buckler at his back, a naked sword in his 
hand. And the stuff of which he was made, 
and his illustrious lineage, made him endure 
this toil, amid heavy frosts and cold, with- 
out laments such as many others made ; for 
there was no one who could help him, 
although he was the man he was, and had 
243 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

in Spain two thousand ducats of income 
through the Church. And that day this 
gentleman saw him he did not believe he 
had eaten more than a mouthful, and that 
he had to dig up with his nails! 

" I could hardly help laughing when I 
heard that this knight had left the Church 
and the income mentioned, to go in search 
of such a life as this, at the sound of the 
words of De Soto ; because I knew Soto very 
well, and although he was a man of worth, 
I did not suppose he was so winning a 
talker, or so clever, as to delude such per- 
sons. Forsooth, what was it that a man 
like him wanted, of a land unexplored and 
unknown?" 

What, forsooth ? Many were asking them- 
selves this question the morning after the 
fire, and could find no satisfactory answer. 
The Indians did not cease to attack them, 
by night and by day, so that constant 
vigilance was demanded of all, and few of 
the wearied soldiers secured the rest they 
greatly needed; though provisions were 
abundant, the foraging - parties always re- 
turning with great quantities of dried fruits 
and maize. 

They removed to a plain a little distance 
244 



HOW THE MISSISSIPPI WAS CROSSED 

off, and there set up a forge, with bellows 
of bear-skin, by which they retempered their 
swords, injured by the fire. They made 
lances and saddle-trees of ash-wood, shields 
of buffalo-hide, blankets of flexible grasses, 
and in a week were ready to march on again ; 
but they remained in their temporary huts 
during the month of March, and the last 
week of April resumed their wanderings. 
The Spaniards had hoped for a cessation of 
hostilities after leaving Chicaza (the prov- 
ince in which they had suffered so terribly) ; 
but three days from the frontier they came 
upon a palisadoed fortress filled with Indians, 
"who looked like devils rather than men." 
How these "red devils" appeared to the 
astonished eye - witnesses let one of them 
tell, for of a truth his description cannot be 
improved upon, and it brings them vividly 
before us. They were naked, but seemed to 
be clothed, for "their bodies, legs, and arms 
were painted and ochred with red, black, 
white, and vermilion stripes, so that they 
appeared to have on stockings and doublet. 
Some wore feathers and others great horns 
on their heads, their faces blackened, and 
eyes encircled with vermilion, to heighten 
their fierce aspect. So soon as they saw us 

17 245 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

draw nigh, they beat their drums, and, with 
loud yells, in great fury came forth to greet 
us. . . . All in our sight they made a great fire, 
and, taking an Indian by the head and feet, 
pretended to give him many blows, and cast 
him into the flames ; signifying in this way 
what they would do with the Christians." 

When it was reported to De Soto that the 
Indians defied him, he cast caution to the 
winds, as usual, during that sullen mood which 
then possessed him, and replied to Juan de 
Aiiasco, who had led the reconnoissance : 
"What, devils — did you say? Sooth, then, 
we cannot pass them by. Nothing yet, in 
shape of men, have we seen and have not 
vanquished. At them — at the diablos!" 

But the " devils " were strongly intrenched ; 
nor did their looks belie their character. Their 
fortress was an involved labyrinth of pali- 
sados, considered by them impregnable, yet 
they sallied forth to meet the invaders with 
ferocious yells and discharges of arrows. 
Several soldiers were mortally wounded at 
the first fire; but, with the governor in his 
accustomed place, at the forefront of battle, 
leading the cavalry, the Spaniards charged 
upon and drove them within the portals of 
the fort. There they became so jammed 
246 



HOW THE MISSISSIPPI WAS CROSSED 

within the narrow entrance - ways that the 
attacking troopers cut them down in heaps 
with their good swords, and when they had 
finally gained the interior, and the infantry 
gave their support, the carnage was horrible. 

The savages fought with desperation and 
to the last gasp, but many escaped from the 
fort, and, swimming a deep stream on the 
banks of which it was built, gathered on a 
plain, where, undismayed by their fearful 
losses, they continued their cries of defiance. 
Wrought to a fever- heat by the action, and 
his anger inflamed by a blow he had received 
on the head, which "made him see stars," 
De Soto forded the stream and pursued the 
Indians for more than a league, night alone 
putting a stop to the dreadful slaughter. 

This stronghold of the Indians was called 
by them Alibamo, and was probably situated 
on the Yazoo River, from which, four days 
after the battle, De Soto set forth, still in a 
northerly direction, to avoid the sea-coast, 
and in eight days reached the bank of a 
mightier stream. It was nearly half a league 
in width, so that "a man standing on the 
farther shore could not be told whether he 
were a man or not." Its current was swift, 
a turbulent flood, and on its surface were 
247 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

great trees and masses of drift-wood, tell- 
ing of its tremendous force and the distant 
sources of its waters. 

The Indian name of the river, at this point, 
was Chucagua ; but, as it was the largest the 
Spaniards had seen in "Florida," De Soto 
called it the Rio Grande, or Great River, 

It was, of course, none other than the 
Mississippi, our wonderful " Father of Wa- 
ters," " De Soto was the first European," 
says Mr. Irving in his Conquest of Florida, 
"who looked upon the turbid waters of this 
magnificent river, and that event has more 
surely enrolled his name among those who 
will ever live in American history than if he 
had discovered mines of gold and silver."* 

Still, De Soto, at that time, would rather 
have found the mines of which he was in 
search; and, like Columbus, who discovered 
a new continent without being aware of the 
fact, was ignorant of the magnitude of his 
own discovery. It is doubtful if he could 

* De Soto was not the discoverer of the Mississippi, 
nor the first European to look upon it, for its mouth 
had been entered in 1520 by Alonzo Alvarez de Poinda, 
commander of an expedition fitted out by Francisco de 
Garay, then governor of Jamaica. Panfilo de Nar- 
vaez, also, must have entered, or crossed, its mouth 
in or about 1528. 

248 




DE SOTO ON THK SHORE OF THE MISSISSIPPI 



HOW THE MISSISSIPPI WAS CROSSED 

have appreciated its value had he been in- 
formed of it when, approaching the mighty 
stream, through tangled swamp and flooded 
lowlands, he looked anxiously across its vast 
expanse to the distant shore which he was 
so desirous of attaining. It was, to him, 
merely an obstacle in his march, "another 
wide river to cross," and he cast about at 
once for the means to accomplish his task. 

"He went to look at the river," says the 
Fidalgo, "and saw that near it there was 
much good timber, of which pirogues might 
be made, and a good situation in which a 
camp might be placed. He directly moved, 
built houses, and settled on a plain a cross- 
bow-shot from the water, bringing together 
there all the maize of the towns behind him, 
that at once they might go to work and cut 
down trees for sawing out planks." 

The nearest town to the Great River was 
called Quizquiz, which was the name borne 
by a chieftain in the Inca's armies; but 
whether De Soto was reminded by this of his 
adventures in Peru, and thereby constrained 
to draw a contrast between his former glori- 
ous career and his present pitiful state, does 
not appear. The contrast is obvious, for he 
was now not only broken in fortune, but to 
249 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

some extent in spirit. Instead of seeking 
further conquests, he desired only peace, and 
permission from the cacique of Quizquiz to 
build his pirogues and cross the Great River. 
This the cacique was himself disposed to 
grant ; but he told De Soto that he was sub- 
ject to a greater cacique, who would be angry 
if he did not oppose his progress, and so felt 
compelled to assemble his warriors, which he 
did, to the number of more than four thou- 
sand. He lived in a hut on the summit of a 
large artificial mound, and around it gathered 
his warriors, the while brandishing his spear 
and haranguing them as though about to 
lead on to an overwhelming victory. 

Though with difficulty restraining his an- 
ger, De Soto held his men in hand, ready 
for the emergency of battle, and at last suc- 
ceeded in pacifying the excited chieftain and 
securing his permission to remain for a while, 
provided his men abstained from ravaging 
the province. "The next day," according 
to the Fidalgo, " the great cacique arrived, 
with two hundred canoes, filled with warriors 
having weapons. The warriors were painted 
with ochre, wearing great bunches of plumes 
in many colors, having feathered shields in 
their hands, with which they sheltered the 
250 



HOW THE MISSISSIPPI WAS CROSSED 

oarsmen on either side ; standing erect, from 
bow to stern, holding bows and arrows. 

" All the canoes came down together, and 
arrived within a stone's - cast of the ravine, 
whence the cacique said to the governor, who 
was standing on the river-bank, with others 
who bore him company, that he had come to 
visit, serve, and obey him; for he had heard 
that he was the greatest of lords, the most 
powerful on earth, and that he must see what 
he would have him to do. The governor 
expressed his pleasure, and besought him 
to land, that they might the better confer; 
but the chief gave no reply, ordering three 
barges to draw near, wherein was great 
quantity of fish, and loaves like bricks, made 
of the pulp of persimmons, which De Soto 
receiving, gave him thanks, and again en- 
treated him to land. 

" Making the gift had been a pretext to 
discover if any harm might be done; but, 
finding the governor and his people on their 
guard, the cacique began to draw away from 
the shore, when the cross-bow- men, who were 
in readiness, with loud cries shot at the 
Indians, and struck down five or six. Still, 
they retired in good order, not one leaving 
the oar, even though the one next to him 
251 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

might have fallen. Afterwards they came 
many times and landed ; but when approach- 
ed they would go back to their barges. They 
were fine-looking men, very large and well- 
formed; and, what with the awnings, their 
plumes, their shields, the pennons, and the 
great number of people in the fleet, it ap- 
peared like a famous armada of galleys." 

It was on a day in the second or third 
week of May, 1541, that De Soto first looked 
on the Mississippi, which appeared to him 
and his men "larger than the Danube" — as 
it really was — and on Saturday, June i8th, 
" the whole force crossed this great river in 
the four barges they had built, and gave 
thanks to God because, in His good pleasure, 
nothing more difficult could confront them." 

"On the other side of the river," wrote De 
Soto's secretary. Ran j el, "about seven thou- 
sand Indians had got together to defend the 
passage. All of them had shields made of 
canes, so strong and so closely interwoven 
with thread that a cross-bow could hardly 
pierce them. The arrows came raining down 
so that the air was full of them, and their 
yells were something fearful. But when they 
saw that the work on the barges did not re- 
lax on their account, they said that Pehaca, 
252 



HOW THE MISSISSIPPI WAS CROSSED 

whose men they were, ordered them to with- 
draw, and so they left the passage free." 

These Indians, large of stature, and with 
their shields of buffalo -hide, were probably 
the warlike Sioux, and the place of crossing 
is thought to have been the lower Chickasaw 
Bluff, which had been an Indian landmark 
from time immemorial. The western bank 
of the river was occupied by the army at 
sunset, and the next day, after the boats had 
been broken up (for their nails and bolts, 
which were preserved for another occasion), 
the interrupted march was resumed. The 
route lay through a populous and fertile 
country, and the third week in June they 
entered the dominions of Lord Casqui, whose 
village of about four hundred houses was 
situated in the centre of vast cornfields and 
on the banks of a pleasant stream. This 
cacique welcomed them warmly, and placed 
his house, which was built upon a terraced 
mound, at the governor's disposal. Bowers 
were constructed for the soldiers, in which 
they reposed during the daytime, as well as 
by night; for the heat was oppressive, and 
the Indians so friendly that patrols and 
sentinels were hardly necessary. 

This lord of Casqui, says the chronicler, 
253 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

was the first Indian the Spaniards had met 
in many months to show himself amenable 
to their religion. One day he came to De 
Soto, having in his company two blind men. 
" He said, that inasmuch as the governor was 
the son of the sun, he begged him to restore 
sight to those Indians; whereupon the blind 
men arose, and very earnestly entreated him 
to do so. De Soto answered them that in the 
heavens above there was One who had the 
power to make them whole and do whatever 
they could ask of Him, whose servant he was ; 
that this great Lord made the sky and the 
earth, and man after His image ; that he suf- 
fered on the tree of the true cross, to save 
the human race, and rose from the grave 
the third day, what there was man of Him 
dying, what of divinity being immortal ; and 
that, having ascended into heaven. He was 
there with open arms to receive all that 
would be converted to Him. 

" He then ordered a lofty cross to be made 
and set up in the highest part of the town, 
declaring to the cacique that the Christians 
worshipped that, in the form and memory of 
the one on which Christ sufTered. He placed 
himself with his people before it, on their 
knees, which the Indians did likewise; and 
254 



HOW THE MISSISSIPPI WAS CROSSED 

he told them that from that time henceforth 
they should thus worship the Lord, of whom 
he had spoken to them, that was in the skies, 
asking Him for whatsoever they stood in 
need." 

One version of this incident is that the 
cacique asked the governor to request his 
God to send him rain, and that thereupon 
De Soto erected the great cross, amid the 
prayers and anthems of the army and in the 
presence of thousands of adoring Indians. 



XIX 

A YEAR OF AIMLESS WANDERING 
1541-1542 

THE year that followed the crossing of 
the Mississippi was devoted to the same 
insensate quest for gold that had been pur- 
sued by De Soto during the two years 
preceding, and was equally barren of re- 
sults. Learning that some hills, or moun- 
tains, many leagues distant to the south and 
west abounded in a certain yellow metal, the 
governor set out in search of them, accom- 
panied by Cacique Casqui, with five thousand 
warriors and three thousand Indians laden 
with the baggage and supplies of the army. 
The Spaniards had rested nearly ten days on 
the western bank of the Great River, and they 
marched eagerly and with alacrity through 
an attractive country, until they reached 
the borders of an extensive swamp. This 
was crossed on rude bridges constructed by 
Casqui 's Indians, two days' march beyond 
256 



A YEAR OF AIMLESS WANDERING 

which the army came in sight of the capital 
town of another cacique known as Capaha. 
This savage was at war with the alHes of De 
Soto, who was not aware of this fact until the 
town was reached, when it was discovered 
that Casqui, who had forged ahead with the 
pick of his warriors (under pretence of clear- 
ing the trails and foraging for supplies), 
had sacked and plundered the place, besides 
massacring the inhabitants. 

It then developed that a perpetual enmi- 
ty existed between the two tribes, of Casqui 
and Capaha, and that the former had availed 
himself of the protection afforded by his new 
allies to commit a ravage which hitherto had 
been impossible, owing to his inferiority in 
strength and courage to his rival, who had 
always vanquished him when they met on 
the field of battle. He and his warriors grati- 
fied their long-deferred vengeance, not only 
by killing and scalping all they found alive in 
Capaha's town, but by breaking open and 
desecrating the sepulchres of his ancestors. 
They wrenched from their coffins the remains 
of warriors who had defeated them in the 
past, exposing them to every sort of indigni- 
ty, and then, removing from poles planted 
around the sepulchre the heads of their own 
257 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

braves, who had been killed in previous wars, 
replaced them with similar gory trophies 
severed from the trunks of those they had 
so recently slain. 

All this had been accomplished by the 
time the Spaniards arrived, and it was too 
late to repair the evil, though De Soto was 
greatly distressed, as he had hoped to make 
an ally of Capaha, and not an enemy. He 
could not afford to antagonize a cacique of 
his importance, in the condition in which he 
found himself at that time, and so he sent an 
embassy to seek him out and proffer his 
friendship. 

Capaha had retreated from the town, be- 
cause, being a practised warrior, he recog- 
nized the futility of opposing Casqui and the 
Spaniards in that defenceless position, but 
had intrenched himself on an island, where 
he awaited an attack, with a large force of 
warriors. As he spurned all proffers of peace, 
the governor had no alternative but to at- 
tack him in his stronghold, and by means 
of seventy canoes, which Casqui promptly 
provided, crossed over, with two hundred 
Spaniards and three thousand Indians. The 
invaders were met with such furious as- 
saults, however, that they could hardly ef- 
258 



A YEAR OF AIMLESS WANDERING 

feet a landing, and had seareely done so be- 
fore Casqui's warriors, intimidated by the 
fury of their ancient enemies, abandoned the 
Spaniards to their fate and paddled away in 
the canoes. 

This defection might have cost De Soto his 
life and his army had not the valiant Capaha 
ordered a cessation of hostilities, after in- 
flicting terrible injuries upon his foes, and 
himself extended the olive-branch of peace. 
He was as sagacious, it seemed, as he was 
courageous, and, recognizing the wonderful 
prowess of his assailants, determined to con- 
quer a peace and convert them into allies. 
This was the more readily accomplished since 
the Spaniards were inclined that way, and 
soon the recreant Casqui learned, to his great 
mortification, that his hated rival, Capaha, 
was in confab with his redoubtable ally. Re- 
calling his men, he sent to De Soto presents 
of fish and mantles, as well as one of his own 
daughters as an ambassadress. 

Though the governor despised Casqui for 
his cowardice, yet he felt the necessity of re- 
taining both caciques as friends, and used 
his best efforts to bring about a reconcili- 
ation. When, however, Casqui came into 
the presence of De Soto and Capaha, the 
259 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

latter did not deign to look in his direction, 
but ignored him completely. He refused to 
listen to the governor's entreaties at first, 
for his heart was full of grief at the insults 
offered to the remains of his ancestors and 
dead warriors, which he had reverently 
gathered together again and, with tears and 
groans, deposited in their coffins. He finally 
gave his hand to Casqui, but at the same 
time significantly remarked: "Through the 
strength of these strangers you have re- 
venged your past defeats, which you never 
could have accomplished unassisted. Thank 
them for it, then; but remember, they will 
not stay here always ; they will go, while we 
remain. And, rest assured, we shall meet 
again on the battle-field!" 

Capaha was a young man, of frank and 
manly bearing, and De Soto was more drawn 
to him than to Casqui ; but the latter recov- 
ered the governor's confidence by the follow- 
ing pathetic appeal : " How is it possible, 
my lord," he said, "that after having given 
me the pledge of friendship, and without my 
having done any harm to you, now you de- 
sire to destroy me, your friend and brother ? 
You gave me the cross, for a defence against 
my enemies; yet with it you now seek to 
260 



A YEAR OF AIMLESS WANDERING 

destroy me. Now, my lord, when God has 
heard us, by means of the cross; when my 
women and my men and my boys threw 
themselves on their knees before it, to pray 
to the God who you said suffered on it, and 
He heard us, and gave us water in abun- 
dance and refreshed our fields; now, when 
we had the most faith in it, and in your 
friendship, you desire to destroy these men 
and women and boys, who are so devoted to 
you and your God." 

The governor, to his credit let us note it, 
was affected to tears as he replied: "Look 
you, Casqui, we are not come to destroy 
you, but to do for you what you know and 
understand is the work of the cross and our 
God — as you tell me. And these favors 
which it has bestowed upon you are small 
things in comparison with many others, and 
very great ones, which it will secure you if 
you love it and believe in it. Be, then, as- 
sured of this, and you will find it so, and 
realize it better every day. And when you 
ran off without my permission, I thought 
that you held the teaching we had given you 
of little account. But, now that you have 
come in humility, be assured that I wish you 
more good than you think ; and if you have 
i8 261 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

need of anything from me tell me of it, and 
you will see, since we do what our God com- 
mands us, which is not to lie; and, therefore, 
believe that I tell you the truth, since to 
speak a lie is a very great sin among us." 

There is other evidence, also, that at this 
time the governor's mood was changing, his 
hard heart softening towards the Indians; 
but that his attitude with respect to the 
soldiers was unchanged is shown by an in- 
cident which occurred in the province of 
Quigate a few weeks after he had parted 
from Casqui and Capaha. Information was 
brought him, at or about midnight, that one 
Juan Gaytan, the king's treasurer, had re- 
fused to go on patrol at the morning watch, 
declaring it derogatory to his station. Now 
it chanced that this same Juan Gaytan had 
been among the loudest of the murmurers at 
Mauvila, and led the faction that desired to 
seize the ships at Pensacola for the purpose 
of returning to Cuba; so De Soto was par- 
ticularly incensed at his defection. Spring- 
ing from his couch in the dwelling of the 
cacique, he strode forth upon the terrace 
above the village and shouted, so that all his 
men might hear: "What is this, my soldiers 
and captains? Do the mutineers still live 
262 



A YEAR OF AIMLESS WANDERING 

who, when in Mauvila, talked of returning to 
Cuba or to Spain ; and do they now, with the 
excuse of being officers of the royal revenue, 
refuse to patrol the four hours that are 
allotted them? . , , Shame, shame on you! 
And recollect that, officers of the royal treas- 
ury or not, you must all serve your sover- 
eign. Presume not upon rank you may pos- 
sess; for, be he who he may, I will take 
off the head of that man who refuses to do 
his duty. And, to undeceive you, know that 
while I live no one shall leave this country 
until we have conquered and settled it!" 

Needless to say, Juan Gay tan went the 
rounds that morning, and every morning 
thereafter when it came his turn. And the 
soldiers saw that their stern commander was 
in no mood to tolerate murmuring, much less 
any suggestion looking towards a cessation of 
their wanderings. It mattered not that the 
"yellow metal" of the mountains proved to 
be nothing more valuable than copper, that 
the country became less attractive the farther 
it was penetrated, and the Indians, if possible, 
more hostile. De Soto was still inexorable. 
There was never a sign of civilization, any 
more than there had been before, in Flor- 
ida. The people were savages, all of them, 
263 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

and their dwellings were huts of the rudest 
character, while as for gold and gems, they 
possessed neither, and seemed never to have 
heard of them. Thus there was absolutely 
no excuse or reason for further wandering; 
yet De Soto wandered on, from one prov- 
ince to another, here meeting with kindness 
and hospitality, there with a hostile recep- 
tion. Decidedly hostile was the greeting the 
Spaniards received in the province of Tula, 
which is a name likewise borne by an Indian 
settlement in Mexico. The natives of Tula 
were ugly by nature and in feature, so hid- 
eous in appearance that they appeared de- 
formed. In truth, their foreheads were ar- 
tificially compressed, by bandages applied 
in infancy, until their skulls were almost 
conical at the crowns. But they were as 
brave as they were ill-looking, and after the 
Spaniards had occupied their village, which 
they had abandoned at their approach, they 
made a midnight attack upon it, fiercely 
fighting till dawn, and killing many with 
their pikes and battle-axes. They fled at 
sunrise to the forest, and the Spaniards dared 
not pursue them ; but of those made captive 
" the governor sent six to the cacique, their 
right hands and their noses cut off, with the 
264 



A YEAR OF AIMLESS WANDERING 

message that, if he did not come to him to 
apologize and render obedience, he would go 
in pursuit, and to him and as many of his as 
he might find would do as he had done to 
those he sent." 

This barbarous act and peremptory mes- 
sage had the desired effect, for at the end of 
three days some Indians appeared, deputed 
by their chief to treat with De Soto. As 
soon as they saw him they wept copious- 
ly and cast themselves at his feet. They 
brought a present of cow-skins, dressed with 
their tails on, which, they said, were ob- 
tained in the north, where roamed great herds 
of enormous beasts — which were doubtless 
the bison, or bufTalo. 

About eighty leagues distant from Tula lay 
the province of Autiamque, where, the Ind- 
ians said, was a "great water," which from 
their accounts appeared to be an arm of the 
sea. " Hence the governor determined to 
winter there, and in the following summer 
go to the seaside, where he would build two 
brigantines, one to send to Cuba, the other 
to Mexico, that the arrival of either might 
bear tidings of him, for three years had now 
elapsed since he had been heard of by Dona 
Isabel or by any other person in a civilized 
265 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

community. Two hundred and fifty of his 
men were dead, Hkewise one hundred and 
fifty horses. He desired to recruit from 
Cuba of man and beast, calculating out of 
his property there to refit and return, to dis- 
cover farther on to the west, where he had 
not reached, and whither Cabeza de Vaca had 
not wandered." 

In Autiamque De Soto resolved to pass the 
winter of 1541-1542; and as the abandoned 
Indian granaries were full to bursting with 
maize, beans, dried grapes and plums, while 
the meadows afforded fine pasturage for the 
horses, the Spaniards did not lack food for 
themselves or for their beasts. The few 
Indians who had lingered were made captive 
and served to bring in wood and water, thus 
the soldiers were relieved of labor, and passed 
the most enoyable winter of any they had 
experienced in "Florida." 

While wintering in Autiamque (or Utian- 
gue) the expedition met with the greatest 
loss it was called upon to sustain, in the 
death of faithful Juan Ortiz, the interpreter. 
Of his last moments we know nothing; but, 
says one of the soldiers, plaintively, "His 
death was so great a hinderance to our going, 
whether on discovery or out of the country, 
266 



A YEAR OF AIMLESS WANDERING 

that to learn of the Indians what he would 
have rendered in four words it became neces- 
sary now to have the whole day ; and oftener 
than otherwise the very opposite was under- 
stood of what we wished to know. Thence- 
forth a lad of Cutifachique, who had learned 
somewhat of the Christians' language, served 
as the interpreter." 

Poor Juan's position had been no sinecure, 
and his services were in continual request, 
by day and by night. " Understanding only 
the Floridian language," says an historian, 
"he conducted conversations through the 
Indians of different tribes who understood 
one another and who attended the expedition. 
In conversing with the Chickasaws, for in- 
stance, he commenced with the Floridian, 
who carried the word to a Georgian, this one 
to the Coosa, the Coosa to the Mobilian, and 
the latter to the Chickasaw. In the same 
tedious manner the reply was conveyed to 
him, and finally reported to De Soto." 

The Indian lad who succeeded to the post 
of interpreter was but a sorry substitute, and 
when, in the month of March, 1542, the 
winter cantonment was abandoned and the 
wearisome journeying again taken up, the 
Spaniards became acutely sensible of their 
267 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

irreparable loss. They were involved in all 
sorts of difficulties: lost in swamps and in 
dense forests, and plunged into encounters 
with Indians, which might have been avoided 
had they possessed an intelligent interpreter. 
Their only consolation lay in the fact that, at 
last, their commander had become convinced 
of his error, in continually wandering west- 
ward, after the ignis fatuus of gold that 
never materialized, and was now directing 
his course once more towards the Mississippi. 

Having heard of a fertile province called 
Anilco, which the Indians said was near the 
Rio Grande, he was bent on reaching it be- 
fore his waning energies should prevent him 
from carrying out his plan, as already men- 
tioned, of building brigantines and sending 
to Cuba for supplies. He had not then, says 
one of the original chroniclers, more than 
four hundred efficient men, nor more than 
forty horses. " Some of these beasts were 
lame, and useful in making a show, only, of a 
cavalry troop ; and, from the lack of iron, they 
had all gone a year without shoes." 

Reflecting upon the sorry condition of his 

steeds, a painful contrast must have been 

forced upon the dispirited commander, when 

he recalled that his horses were once in a 

268 



A YEAR OF AIMLESS WANDERING 

similar predicament in Peru. Climbing the 
craggy steeps of the sierras had worn out 
their shoes, and there was no iron available 
in the land ; but that mattered not, for more 
precious metals were abundant in the Inca's 
country, and so they were shod with silver! 
Neither silver nor gold had been found in 
paying quantities, and no natural wealth, in 
fact, save pearls, the deposits of which lay 
so far to the eastward that they could not 
be regained. 

The country was populous and fertile ; but 
the more Indians De Soto encountered, the 
more foes there were ; and he could not take 
advantage of the soil's fertility, even were 
he so disposed, owing to the lack of an ad- 
vantageous situation for the founding of a 
colony. Anilco, which was reached after a 
toilsome march through swamps and rolling 
country, was a fruitful province, and, like 
Autiamque, was situated on a tributary of 
the Mississippi, supposed to be the Arkansas 
River. About twenty miles below its junc- 
tion with the Great River, however, lay the 
populous town of Guachoya, between which 
and Anilco the country was of inexhaustible 
fertility. 

Towards Guachoya, consequently, De Soto 
269 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

directed his march, and, finding the favor- 
able descriptions verified, established him- 
self there and at once began preparations for 
building two brigantines, in which a portion 
of his command should embark for Cuba and 
Mexico. The cacique of Guachoya was most 
hospitably inclined, receiving the governor 
into his own house and providing subsist- 
ence for the army; but, for reasons of his 
own, every day, at sunset, he and his war- 
riors embarked in their canoes and sought 
the eastern bank of the Mississippi, where 
they remained till sunrise next morning, 
when they returned, to minister to the wants 
of their guests. 

From the behavior of the cacique, De Soto 
suspected that he was forming an alliance 
against him of the neighboring chiefs, es- 
pecially as the cacique of Quigaltanqui, on 
the opposite bank of the river, was decided- 
ly hostile. Neither cacique would give him 
any information relating to the sea, or ocean, 
into which the Mississippi emptied its vast 
volume of waters, so he sent the trusty Juan 
de Afiasco on a scouting expedition, from 
which he returned, eight days later, without 
having discovered anything of importance. 

"Then the governor sank into a deep de- 
270 



A YEAR OF AIMLESS WANDERING 

spondency," relates the Fidalgo of Elvas, 
" at sight of the difficulties presenting them- 
selves to his reaching the sea ; and, what was 
worse, from the way in which the men and 
horses were diminishing in numbers, he felt 
he could not sustain himself in the country 
without succor. Of that reflection he pined ; 
but before he took to his pallet he sent a 
messenger to the cacique of Quigaltanqui, 
to say that he was a child of the sun, and 
whence he came all obeyed him, rendering 
their tribute; that he would rejoice to see 
him, and in token of his love and obedience 
he must bring something from his country 
that was^most in esteem there. 

By the same Indian the chief returned 
this answer: "As to what you say of your 
being the son of the sun, if you will cause 
him to dry up the Great River I will believe 
you; as to the rest, it is not my custom to 
visit any one ; but, rather, all of whom I have 
ever heard have come to visit me, to serve 
me and to pay me tribute. If, then, you 
desire to see me, come where I am. If for 
peace, I will receive you with special good- 
will; if for war, I will await you within my 
town ; but neither for you nor for any other 
man will I set back one foot!" 
271 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

When the messenger returned, the govern- 
or was already very ill of fever. He grieved 
that he was not in a state to cross the river 
at once and go in quest of the cacique, to 
see if he could not abate that pride. But the 
stream was already flowing very powerfully, 
was nearly half a league broad, sixteen fathoms 
in depth, and rushing in furious torrent, while 
on either shore were many, many Indians. 



XX 

LAST DAYS OF DE SOTO 
1542 

WHILE many a description has been 
written of the scenes attendant upon 
the last hours of Ferdinand de Soto, there is 
none on record more affecting than that of 
the Fidalgo of Elvas, who was probably 
an eye-witness of the most important occur- 
rences, and participated in them all. For 
this reason, his very words are quoted in this 
connection, and in order that the reader may 
be transported directly to the bedside of the 
dying discoverer as he lay on his rude pallet 
in a lowly hut belonging to the cacique of 
Guachoya. 

"Conscious that the hour approached in 
which he should depart this life," says the 
artless chronicler, " the governor command- 
ed that all his officers should be called before 
him, the captains and principal personages, 
to whom he made speech: 
273 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

"He said that he was about to go into the 
presence of God, to give account of all his 
past life; and, since He had been pleased 
to take him away at such a time — when he 
could recognize the moment of his death — he. 
His most unworthy servant, rendered Him 
hearty thanks. He confessed his deep obliga- 
tions to them all, whether present or absent, 
for their good qualities, their love, and their 
loyalty to his person. He begged that they 
would pray for him, that, through mercy, he 
might be pardoned his sins and be received 
into glory. He then asked that he might be 
relieved of the charge he held over them, as 
well as of any indebtedness he was under to 
them, and to forgive him any wrongs they 
might have received at his hands. 

" Baltazar de Gallegos responded, in be- 
half of all, consoling him with remarks on 
the shortness of the life of this world , attend- 
ed as it was by so many toils and afflictions, 
saying that whom God earliest called away 
He showed particular favor to, with many 
other things appropriate to such an occasion. 
And finally, since it had pleased the Almighty 
to take him to Himself, amid the deep sorrow 
they not unreasonably felt, it was necessary 
and becoming in him, as in them, to conform 
274 



LAST DAYS OF DE SOTO 

to the divine will. That as respected the 
election of a governor, which he ordered, 
whomsoever his excellency should name to 
the command, him would they obey. There- 
upon, the governor nominated Luis de Mos- 
coso de Alvarado to be his captain-general, 
and by all those present he was straightway 
chosen and sworn. 

"The next day, which was May 21, 1542, 
departed this life the virtuous, the mag- 
nanimous, and the intrepid captain Don 
Hernando de Soto, governor of Cuba and 
adelantado of the Floridas. He had been 
advanced by fortune, in the way she is wont 
to lead others, that he might fall the farther ; 
he died in a land, and at a time, that could 
afford him little comfort in his illness, when 
the danger of being no more heard from 
stared his companions in the face, each one 
having need of sympathy; which was the 
reason why they neither gave him of their 
companionship nor visited him oft, as other- 
wise they would have done. 

' ' Luis de Moscoso determined to conceal 
what had happened from the Indians, for 
De Soto had given them to understand that 
the Christians were immortal ; besides which 
they held him to be sagacious, vigilant, brave ; 
275 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

and, although they were at peace, should 
they know him to be dead, might venture on 
an attack. So soon, therefore, as death had 
taken place, he ordered the body to be placed 
secretly in a house apart, where it remained 
three days; and thence it was taken, by his 
orders, to a gate of the town and buried 
within the wall. The Indians, who had seen 
him ill, finding him no longer, suspected 
the reason, and, passing by where he lay, 
they observed the ground loose, and, looking 
about, talked among themselves. This com- 
ing to the knowledge of Luis de Moscoso, he 
ordered the corpse to be taken up at night, 
and, among the shawls that enshrouded it 
having cast an abundance of sand, it was 
taken out in a canoe and sunk in the middle 
of the stream." 

These precautions were taken to prevent 
the Indians from offering insult to the re- 
vered remains, which, had they known the 
burial-place, they would certainly have torn 
from the grave, and, according to their bar- 
barous custom, hung up in a lofty tree. By 
sinking the body of De Soto beneath the 
waters of the Mississippi, Moscoso effectually 
precluded the carrying-out of their evil in- 
tention ; but the manner of his doing it was 
276 



LAST DAYS OF DE SOTO 

not, probably, as given by the Fidalgo. Ac- 
cording to the Inca Garcilaso, the body was 
disinterred and placed in a hollowed-out log 
of live-oak, where it was confined by a plank, 
nailed over the aperture. Then it was taken 
in a canoe to the centre of the river, where 
it was given to its last resting - place, one 
hundred feet beneath the surface of the 
stream. 

Thus, in the darkness of midnight, in a 
strange land and surrounded by hostile 
savages, with the dramatic accessories of 
a torch-lighted canoe, hooded priests, and 
armored cavaliers, all that was earthly of 
Ferdinand de Soto was committed to the 
keeping of the great river he had discovered. 
Above his burial-place perpetually roll the 
waters of the mighty Mississippi, and if the 
Indians surmised where it was, at least they 
could not desecrate the remains of the cav- 
alier who, in the language of the Inca Gar- 
cilaso, "had crossed a portion of the con- 
tinent in search of gold, and found nothing 
so remarkable as his burial-place." 

They were, doubtless, aware of what had 
occurred, and the cacique of Guachoya asked 
for De Soto, saying: "What has been done 
with my brother and lord, the governor?" 
277 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

"Luis de Moscoso replied that he had 
ascended into the skies, as he had done on 
many other occasions ; but as he would have 
to be detained there some time, he had left 
him in his stead. The chief, thinking within 
himself that he was dead, ordered two well- 
proportioned young men to be brought, say- 
ing that it was the usage of his country, 
when any lord died, to kill some persons of 
inferior rank, who should accompany and 
serve him on the way; and he told him to 
command their heads to be struck off, that 
they might go accordingly to attend his friend 
and master. 

" Then Moscoso rejoined, that the govern- 
or was not dead, but only gone into the 
heavens, having taken with him of his sol- 
diers sufficient number for his needs ; and he 
besought him to let those Indians go, and 
from that time forward not to follow so evil 
a practice. So they were presently ordered 
to be let loose, that they might return to 
their homes; but one of them refused to 
leave, alleging that he did not wish to remain 
in the power of one who, without cause, had 
condemned him to die, and that he desired 
to serve the one who had saved his life, so 
long as he should live." 
278 



LAST DAYS OF DE SOTO 

The departed commander's pitiful state 
was shown when, Moscoso having ordered a 
sale of his property by public outcry, it was 
found to consist solely of two male and 
three female slaves, three horses with their 
trappings, and seven hundred swine. These 
last had wonderfully increased, from the 
survivors of the many vicissitudes to which 
they had been exposed, and had been 
jealously safeguarded by De Soto, who 
knew their value as affording sustenance in 
the extremity of famine. Bought by the 
soldiers at two hundred crowns apiece (to 
be paid for when they should have the 
money), henceforth, says one of their num- 
ber, they lived on pork so long as it last- 
ed, having previously passed two or three 
months at a time without tasting meat of 
any sort. 

While the life-story of Ferdinand de Soto 
ends with his burial beneath the waters of the 
Mississippi, yet it may be naturally assumed 
that the reader, having followed his fortunes 
so long, will be interested in the fate of those 
with whom he was intimately associated on 
the terrible journey. Many had looked for- 
ward to the death of their commander as 
likely to afford them opportunity to depart 
279 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

for Cuba, but at a council of war called by 
Moscoso it was decided to press on westward 
in search of Mexico. Moscoso proved him- 
self a very incapable commander, and during 
the year that followed led his men on a 
wearisome and aimless journey, that finally 
terminated at or near the place where De 
Soto died. 

They had marched over many hundred 
miles of new territory, and left behind them 
ghastly traces of their wanderings, in the 
corpses of soldiers who had fallen or been 
slain by the way in conflicts with the savages. 
Wheresoever the Spaniards had passed, the 
country lay devastated, and it was but a 
haggard, wretched, and famine-stricken rem- 
nant of the original company that finally 
arrived at Guachoya and viewed there, with 
many a sad foreboding, the place where the 
governor, De Soto, had died. 

One by one the cavaliers with whom we 
became acquainted on the march through 
Florida had dropped from the ranks, among 
the most prominent being Nufio de Tobar, 
who (as doubtless the reader will recall) had 
incurred his commander's displeasure by his 
betrayal of the lovely Leonora. He had 
done everything in his power to placate the 
280 



LAST DAYS OF DE SOTO 

incensed governor, and during the long 
period of their journey ings together had 
borne himself like a hero in every battle and 
skirmish; but De Soto passed away without 
showing any signs of relenting towards the 
unfortunate Nuno de Tobar, 

The winter of 1 542-1 543 was passed in 
comparative comfort, for the caciques of the 
country had become aware of the intention 
of the Spaniards to depart, and, overjoyed 
at the prospect, hastened to supply provi- 
sions of every sort. But the building of the 
brigan tines was a long and tedious process, 
for there was only one ship-carpenter in the 
army, and material for their construction 
was scarce. Nails and bolts were made from 
every scrap of iron obtainable : from the man- 
acles of the Indian captives, then perforce 
set free; from the troopers' bits and stirrups, 
disused musket - barrels rendered inefficient 
by the lack of ammunition, and sword-blades 
that had been injured beyond repair. The 
Indians gave their services for the cutting of 
timber and bearing it from the forests to the 
river-bank; but it was not until July 2, 1543, 
that the wretched remains of De Soto's once- 
noble army, then reduced to less than three 
hundred and fifty men, embarked upon the 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

bosom of the great river which, as the Span- 
iards supposed, would take them to the sea, 
upon whose shores they might find a haven 
of safety. 

The cumbersome craft were difficult to 
manage, for the ctirrents of the Mississippi 
were swift and dangerous; but they en- 
countered yet another peril, in vast fleets of 
canoes manned with Indian warriors by the 
hostile cacique Quigaltanqui — the same who 
had sent the defiant message to De Soto 
when on his bed of death. Instead of en- 
deavoring to placate this chieftain, Moscoso 
had further exasperated him by cutting off 
the hands of thirty spies, whom he had 
captured in his camp, and sent home thus 
horribly mutilated. Wrought to the highest 
pitch of fury, the cacique vowed revenge, 
and soon after the Spanish fleet put down the 
river it was assailed by thousands of savages, 
whose naked skins were hideously painted, 
and who proved fatally expert with bow and 
arrow, as well as with spear and war-club. 
It was not long before all but eight of the 
horses were killed and nearly every Spaniard 
wounded, while on the fourth day of the voy- 
age four boats were cut off from the little 
fleet and forty-eight soldiers met death by 
282 



LAST DAYS OF DE SOTO 

drowning or by Indian arrows. A few days 
later the hapless Spaniards were compelled 
to witness the extermination of their beloved 
horses, which they had landed for the purpose 
of foraging on shore. Left to their cruel 
fate — for their owners barely escaped with 
their lives — the poor beasts were felled by 
savages with war-clubs and transfixed with 
arrows, while the troopers looked on and 
wept, in futile rage and grief. As all their 
powder had been consumed in the fire at 
Mauvila, the few arquebuses remaining were 
useless, and the harried Spaniards could only 
defend themselves with their cross-bows, for 
once in their experience enduring greater 
losses than they inflicted upon the enemy. 
This unequal combat went on during sixteen 
days, until at last, their vengeance sated, the 
savages gave over the pursuit and departed 
up the river, amid howls and songs of victory. 
Shortly after, the unfortunate voyagers 
sighted the sea ; but their troubles were then 
by no means ended, for they were without 
chart, compass, pilot, or skilled navigator, 
and knew not whether to push out boldly 
into the Gulf of Mexico or follow the wind- 
ings of the coast. The former course was 
adopted, but a gale of twenty-six hours' 
283 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 

duration separated and nearly wrecked the 
frail brigantines, which after that were kept 
in near to shore. They voyaged so slowly 
that nearly two months were consumed in 
reaching a Mexican port now known as Tam- 
pico, the inhabitants of which received the 
starving survivors with generous hospitality. 
Clad in the skins of wild beasts, with hair and 
beards untrimmed, the once- vaunted soldiers 
of Florida were objects of wonder and com- 
miseration. After having been supplied with 
food and clothing by the Mexicans, they 
were sent overland to the city of Mexico, 
where the viceroy and the commonalty vied 
in showing them kindness and attention. 

Few of these Floridian soldiers ever re- 
turned to Spain or to Cuba, but ended their 
days in Mexico or Peru, where they enlisted 
for military service. The viceroy of Mexico 
offered to equip another expedition and send 
them back to colonize the country which at 
a distance and in retrospection, appeared to 
them fruitful and promising; but when put 
to the test they shrank from the fatigues and 
dangers to which they might be exposed. 

They had reached Mexico about the mid- 
dle of September, 1543. A month later one 
of several expeditions, sent out by- Dona 
284 



LAST DAYS OF DE SOTO 

Isabel from Havana, arrived at Vera Cruz 
and learned for the first time of the disas- 
ters that had overtaken De Soto. It was 
commanded by those loyal cavaliers Diego 
Maldonado and Gomez Arias, who (as the 
reader will remember) had been despatched 
by De Soto to Cuba for reinforcements and 
suppHes. They faithfully fulfilled their re- 
spective missions, and returned to Pensacola, 
where they waited long and anxiously in the 
harbor, daily expecting their commander to 
appear. When finally convinced that fur- 
ther waiting was in vain, they searched the 
harbors east and west for many leagues, then 
returned to Cuba, whence, the next summer, 
they were again sent to Florida by the anx- 
ious and loyal wife of De Soto. 

A second time they returned, after an 
equally fruitless quest, and the next season 
sailed again, cruising around the Gulf of 
Mexico as far as Vera Cruz, where at last 
they learned of what had happened. The 
sorrowful tidings which they carried back to 
Dona Isabel, still waiting and hoping in 
Havana, overwhelmed her so completely that 
she soon after sank broken-hearted to her 
grave. 



INDEX 



AcHALAQUE, province of, 
192. 

Achese, province, 159. 

Acoste, cacique of, 202, 
204, 207. 

Acuera, Indian cacique, 
112, 113. 

Adelantado, title given De 
Soto, 78. 

Alibamo, Indian strong- 
hold, 247. 

Anasco, Juan de, soldier, 
84, 142, 143, 145, 146, 
149, 181, 184, 246, 270. 

Anhayca, Apalachee capi- 
tal, 142 (see map). 

Anilco, province of, 268, 
269. 

Apalachee tribe of Ind- 
ians, 133 et seq.; chap. 

X. 

Arias, Gomez, Spanish sol- 
dier, 145, 147; seeks De 
Soto, 285. 

Arkansas River crossed by 
De Soto, 269. 

Atahuallpa, Inca of Peru, 
1,2, 60-62. 

Atapaha, Floridian prov- 
ince, 159. 

Aute, bay of, 144, 151. 

Autiamque province, 265, 
266. 



Avila, Don Pedro Arias de 
(Pedrarias), 14-18, 21, 
23, 24, 31, 42; murders 
De Cordova, 44; de- 
nounced by De Soto, 47 ; 
atrocities and death of, 

59- 
Ayllon, Vasquez de, law- 
yer-explorer, 182. 

Badajoz, castle of, Spain, 

72. 
Balboa, Vasco Nunez de, 

„ ^7. 19- 

Barbacoa, Indian corn- 
crib, 171. 

Bison, or buffalo, seen, 
172. 

Blood-hound, a sagacious, 
116. 

Bobadilla, Isabel de. See 
Isabel, and Doiia. 

Cacica, female cacique, 
163, 176, 180; generos- 
ity of, 189; made cap- 
tive, 190; escape of the, 

193- 
Calderon, Captain Pedro, 

103, 149; 

Capachiqui, in Florida, 159. 
Capafi, cacique, 140, 152— 
154- 

87 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 



Capaha, Indian cacique, 
257—260, 262. 

Casqui, Lord, 253, 256 et seq. 

Cherokees, country of the, 
192. 

Chickasaws, country of 
the, 238. 

Child of the sun, 4, 271. 

Choctaws, land of the, 208. 

Chucagua, Indian name of 
Mississippi River, 248. 

Codro, astrologer, 50-56. 

Cofachiqui, cacica's prov- 
ince, 163. 

Cofaqui, cacique of, 163. 

Coosa River, the, 202, 205. 

Cordova, Fernando de, 42- 

44- 
Cross raised by De Soto, 

254- 

De Cordova, Ferdinand. 
See Cordova. 

De Soto, Ferdinand. See 
Soto. 

Diaz, Bemal, 44. 

Dogs, native, as food sup- 
ply, 161. 

Don Pedro. See Avila. 

Dona Isabel. See Isabel 
de Bobadilla. 

EspiNOSA, Captain, 32, 35, 

36. 
Espiritu Santo, bay of, 90; 
original Spanish name of 
Mississippi River. 

Falconet, the, abandoned , 
162. 

"Fidalgo " of Elvas, Portu- 
guese narrator, 157, 177, 
207, 249, 271, 273. 



Florida, first landing in, 
74; De Soto governor 
of, 77; lands in, 90; 
Indians of, 92. 

Gallegos, Baltasar de, 
soldier, 89, 99, 220; con- 
soles De Soto, 274. 

Gaytan, Juan, defection of, 
262. 

Gold, gossip about, 157, 
158. 

Gomera, the governor of, 
80; daughter of, 80, 81. 

Gonzales, Gil, 42-44. 

Granada, in Nicaragua, 43. 

Guachoya, town and chief 
of, 269, 270, 280. 

Hammock bridges, 109. 
Havana, departure from, 

89. 
Hidalguia of Spain, 14. 
Hillsboro River, 109. 

IcHiAHA, cacique of, 196. 

Inca Garcilaso, the, 277. 

Indian princess, 176 et seq. 

Indians, of Nicaragua, 31; 
of Florida, 92, 93, 95, 96; 
fierce warriors of the, 
112; different tribes, 113; 
battles with, 125-128, 
135-140; of Apalachee, 
133, 142; sufferings of, 
159; sepulchres of, 188; 
treachery of, 220, 239; 
painted like devils, 245; 
intrepidity of, 247; on 
the Mississippi, 250, 253; 
languages of the, 267; 
revenge themselves upon 
the Spaniards, 282. 



288 



INDEX 



Irving, Theodore, The Con- 
quest of Florida, 237, 
248. 

Isabel de Bobadilla, 16, 17, 
19, 22; married to De 
Soto, 71 ; Dona, remains 
in Cuba, 89; receives 
tidings from De Soto, 
147; dies broken-heart- 
ed, 285. 

Jeres de LOS Caballeros, 
13. 14- 

" Knight of La Mancha," 
the, 105. 

Leon, town in Nicaragua, 
43; Ponce de, 74, 77. 

Leonora, daughter of Span- 
ish governor, 81. 

Maldonado, Diego, 150, 
214, 230; searches for 
De Soto, 285. 

Mauvila (or Mobile), Ind- 
ian stronghold , 2 1 1 — 2 1 3 ; 
battle of, chapter xvi. 

Mexico, arrival of De Soto's 
men in, 284. 

Mississippi River, first 
glimpse of, by De Soto, 
248, 252. 

Mocoso, Indian chief, in 
Florida, 97, 98, 107, 
146. 

Moscoso, Luis de, Spanish 
captain, no, 219, 239, 
275, 276, 278, 280, 282. 

Moya, Marchioness of, 15. 

Narvaez, Panfilo de, 74, 
75; relics of, 144. 



Oca LI, Indian town of, 

114; cacique of , 117. 
Ochile, Indian town, 118. 
Ochuse, bay of Pensacola, 

ISO- 
Ortiz, Juan, interpreter, 98, 

99, loi; death of , 266. 
Osachile, village of, 131, 

132. 
Osorio, Don Antonio, 243. 
Oviedo, historian, 235, 243. 

Panama founded by Pe- 

drarias, 27. 
Paracoxi, Indian chief, 107, 

108. 
Patofa, cacique, 164, 165, 

169, 173, 174- 
Pearls, vast quantities of, 

180; fishing for, 199. 
Pedrarias. See Avila. 
Pensacola Bay discovered, 

1 50 ; distance from Mau- 
vila, 230. 
Perico, Indian interpreter, 

166, 167. 
Pizarro, Francisco and 

brothers, 6; Hernando, 

7. 9- 
Ponce, Heman, 85, 88. 
Porcallo, Vasco, 82, 83, 92, 

105, 107. 

QuiGALTANQUi, cacique of, 

270, 271, 282. 
Quizquiz, Indian town, 

249; cacique of, 250. 

Ranjel, Rodrigo, De 
Soto's secretary, 98, 181, 
229, 243. 

Rio Grande, Great River — 
Mississippi, 248. 

89 



FERDINAND DE SOTO 



Rios, Don Pedro de los, 
42. 

St. Marks Bay discov- 
ered, 144. 

" Secret of the strait," the, 
48,49. 

Sioux Indians, mention of, 

253- 
Soto, Ferdinand de, ad- 
vent of, 1-4; early Hfe 
of, 1 3-20 ; sails for Amer- 
ica, 21; fights a duel , 2 7 ; 
in Nicaragua, 30-44; de- 
fies Pedrarias, 47 ; ex- 
plores Nicaragua, 49; 
avenges death of friend, 
5 7 ; friend of the Inca, 6 1 , 
63; campaign in Peru, 
60 et seq.; denounces 
Pizarro, 63; attacks 
Peruvians, 65; enters 
Cuzco, 67; returns to 
Spain, 69; enriched by 
plunder, 70 ; marries 
Isabel de Bobadilla, 71; 
adelantado of Florida, 
77; sails for Cuba, 79; 
arrives at Santiago, 81; 
at Havana, 84; lands in 
Florida, 90; on the 
march, 107 et seq.; is 
wounded by Indian ,127; 
bums captive at stake, 
168; takes a princess 
captive, 190; in a terri- 
ble battle, 221, 226; 
severely wounded , 222; 
loses his nephews in 
fight, 222; strange de- 
termination of, 234; in 
burning village, 240; in 
great extremity, 242; 



again wounded, 247; ar- 
rives at Mississippi River, 
247; not its discoverer, 
248; mutilates Indians, 
264; last days of, 273; 
bids farewell to com- 
panions, 274; death of, 
275; burial of beneath 
the Mississippi, 276. 

Suwanee River, 130; Old 
Town, 132. 

Swamp, battle of the, 135- 
138. 

Talimico, tombs of, 182, 
188. 

Talise, Tuscaloosa's town, 
210. 

Tallahassee, site of, 144. 

Tampa Bay — Espiritu San- 
to, 95. 

Tampico, Spaniards arrive 
at, 284. 

Terron, Juan, and his 
pearls, 194. 

Toalli, aboriginal town, 

159- 

Tobar, Nuno de, cavalier, 
80, 81; death of, 2S0. 

Tula, Indian town of, 264. 

Tuscaloosa, mighty war- 
rior, 208, 212; encoun- 
ter with, 215, 228. 

UciTA, Chief, maltreated 
by Narvaez, 94, 96. 

Uracca, Nicaraguan Ind- 
ian, 31, 40. 

Utiangue, or Autiamque, 
266. 

Vaca, Cabeza de, 75, 76, 
78. 



290 



WIO 6 



INDEX 



Valenzuela, Geronimo, 54, 

55- 
Veragua, province of, 31. 
Vitachuco, cacique and 

province of, 118, 128. 

Warrior, the Black, or 
Tuscaloosa, 208. 



Xer^s de LOS Caballeros, 
14. 

Yazoo River, 247. 
Yemassees of Florida, 
113- 

Zebacos islands, 55. 



THE END 






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